Thiruvananthapuram: Three years after the last hike, the Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved an average of five percent increase in tariff for domestic and industrial consumers. The hike, from which BPL consumers consuming up to 40 units a month and agricultural consumers have been exempted, will provide an additional Rs 550 crore for KSEB Limited this fiscal. Relatively modest, the hike will raise domestic tariffs from 10 paise to 50 paise per unit, a 3.5 to 10 percent increase. (On August 16, 2014, when the last hike was effected, household power bills had swollen by 25-40 percent.)
The tariff hike, which has been imposed to bridge a deficit of Rs 4944 crore that KSEB had accumulated till March 2013, will come into effect from Tuesday, April 18. The increase is between 10 paise to 30 paise up for the lowest five domestic consumption slabs, up to households consuming 250 units a month, and this covers over 95 percent of the total domestic consumers. These five slabs also have the advantage of telescopic tariffs, which means tariffs will be calculated at differential rates.
Take for instance a household that had consumed 230 units. The first 50 units will be charged at Rs 2.90 per unit, the next 50 at 3.40 per unit, the next 50 at Rs 4.50 per unit, the next 50 at 6.10 per unit, and the remaining 30 at Rs 7.30 per unit. However, for households consuming more than 250 units (which constitute just about 4 percent of the total domestic consumers) the advantage of telescopic tariff has been denied. A household with a monthly consumption of 420 units will be charged Rs 6.70 for every unit consumed. There will, however, be no change in tariff for households consuming above 400 units a month.
The bulk of the additional revenue this time, Rs 300 crore, will be extracted from domestic consumers. Industrial consumers have been imposed an additional burden of Rs 139 crore. Besides BPL consumers and agricultural consumers, the latest ERC order has exempted 15 categories - including low tension, high tension and extra high tension consumers - from the hike. The benefit to agriculture sector has been widened. As it stands, the existing rate of Rs 2 per unit was restricted to the irrigation of food crops. The benefit has now been extended to vegetables, fruits, coconuts, palm, spices, and cocoa.
For endosulfan victims, power will be provided at Rs 1.50 up to 150 units a month. Private hospitals with a monthly consumption of a maximum of 500 units will be provided power at the rate of Rs 5.50 per unit, same as that of government hospitals. The ERC has estimated that the revenue deficit of KSEB till March 31, 2011, was Rs 424 crore. After truing up or scrutinizing KSEB’s claims, the ERC had found that the revenue deficits for 2011-12 and 2012-13 were Rs 1387 crore and Rs 3133 crore respectively, a total deficit of Rs 4944 crore till March 31, 2013, and for which no compenstion was given till now.
