Team Herald
PANJIM: In major relief to over 65,000 domestic consumers, the power tariff has been reduced from April 1, with the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) granting its nod to the State government’s reduction proposal.
As per the new rates, consumers with a monthly consumption of 200 to 300 units will be charged Rs 2.40 per unit as against the current price of Rs 3.10 per unit for the current financial year.
However, JERC has approved a nearly 10 per cent hike in power tariff for the industrial sector and the Defence Establishment.
“The tariff needs to be designed in such a manner that cross subsidy among different categories of consumers is progressively brought within ±20 per cent of average cost of supply and that even for below poverty line (BPL) category consumers, tariff rates are close to 50 per cent of the average cost of supply,” JERC chairman SK Chaturvedi said in the document.
“The Commission has taken a considerate view in this regard balancing the interest of the utility and the consumer, thus compensating the department with additional revenue by appropriately considering the budgetary support of the Government of Goa as also by providing a reasonable hike in tariffs,” the document states.
The Commission had initially observed that to bridge the approved revenue gap of Rs 252.87 crore at existing tariff, a hike of around 18 per cent in the tariff shall be required, however, the Electricity Department (ED) has proposed an overall hike of around 5 per cent and the balance gap to be met from the budgetary support from the government.
“The Commission, keeping in view various considerations approved in previous sections, has approved the tariff hike of 4.85 per cent,” it said. This includes industrial, defence, commercial sectors, except for domestic consumers.
As per the tariff rates, for domestic consumers the first 100 units would be charged at Rs 1.30 per unit, for 100 to 200 units Rs 1.90 per unit, for 200-300 units Rs 2.40 per unit, for 300-400 units Rs 3.10 per unit. For power consumption above 400 units the charge would be Rs 3.60 per unit.
For commercial establishments, Rs 3.25 per unit would be charged for first 100 units of consumption, Rs 3.90 per unit for power use of 100-200 units, Rs 4.30 for above 200 units but below 400 and Rs 4.70 per unit for above 400 units of power consumption.
Industrial sectors would be charged Rs 3.50 per unit above 500 units consumption, while military establishments would be charged Rs 5 per unit of power usage.
