Power tariff may go up from April

By V V Balakrishna - HYDERABAD

17th December 2012 09:17 AM

  

More trying times are ahead for power consumers. The power distribution  companies are all set to hike power tariff for year 2013-14.
The companies are preparing to file Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and tariff proposals before the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC).
“There is a delay in filing the ARR this year. The Discoms have sought a month’s more time,” APERC sources told Express. Normally, Discoms have to file the tariff proposals by November for the next financial year so that APERC will have 120 days’ statutory time to fix new tariff for different categories of consumers.
But, due to various reasons, the Discoms have been filing the ARRs quite late. Last year, they submitted tariff proposals on December 26. This year, the proposals are likely to be submitted in the first week of January. If APERC approves the new tariff, it will come into effect from April 1.
Last year the Discoms had imposed a burden of `4,441 crore on the consumers by increasing the tariff. Domestic consumers were burdened to the tune of Rs 900 crore, and industrial and commercial consumers to the extent of `3,300 cr.
Though APERC officials have confirmed that they are awaiting the tariff proposals for 2013-14, it is not clear how much burden the Discoms are proposing to impose on the consumers.
Last time the Discoms informed the APERC that the cost of service to domestic consumers was `5.46 per unit. But they proposed Rs 1.45 per unit for BPL families for the first 50 units consumed. With Discoms spending huge amounts on power purchases, the cost of service and the revenue deficit have increased considerably. To meet the situation,  Discoms are expected to hike the domestic power tariff too.
Power consumers are already burdened with the Fuel Surcharge Adjustments (FSA) for the current as well as previous years, and are not in a position to bear any more burden from April.
When Discoms classified domestic consumers into two groups in April this year and burdened non-BPL families more, they were widespread protests across the state. Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy intervened and reduced the power burden. For consumers having more than 500 watts connected load, the tariff was Rs 2.60 for 0-100 units. Responding to the demand for a rollback, the chief minister decided to pay Rs 175 crore to Discoms on behalf of the power consumers, giving relief to 44.5 lakh poor and middle-class consumers.