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Sunday 31 March 2013

Tariff blow may be trimmed

28th March 2013 11:39 AM
A power tariff hike is impending next week, but it is likely to impose a burden of Rs 9,000 crore on consumers rather than Rs 13,000 crore, as proposed by the discoms.
Sources said the state government has communicated to the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) its intent to absorb part of the shock.
The regulator may pronounce its order either on March 28 or 30. As Friday and Sunday are holidays, the new tariff order may be issued on March 28 or 30.
According to sources, APERC is likely to reject the discoms’ proposal to revert to non-telescopic billing. It is said to want to continue with the present telescopic billing system.
“If APERC wants to continue with telescopic billing, the burden on consumers will be lessened by Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 core,” a source said.
The discoms proposed non-telescopic billing while filing their tariff proposals for 2013-14. In that system, consumers who use more power pay a higher rate. “There is stiff opposition to non-telescopic billing,” said a source in Transco.
In the telescopic system, for example, if a consumer uses 150 units of power, he pays Rs 1.45 per unit for the first 50 units, Rs 2.60 for the next 50 units and Rs 3.60 for next 50 units. But under the non-telescopic system, a consumer who uses 150 units will have to pay Rs 3.60 for the entire 150 units. Thus a consumer who uses 100 units per month currently and pays a bill of Rs 202.50 will have to shell out Rs 260 in the next financial year for the same 100 units.
If APERC wants to continue with telescopic billing, domestic consumers who use more than 100 units would have to pay more from April 1.
The discoms also proposed Rs 6,000 crore additional expenditure in order to purchase RLNG to produce power. They proposed this additional expenditure as they felt that there would be no water available in the major reservoirs. But APERC may reject this proposal.
In their Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARRs) proposals for 2013-14 submitted to APERC, the discoms reported a cost-to-service at around Rs 5.25 per unit.
Thus they expect a revenue deficit of Rs 18,000 crore for the next fiscal. However, factoring a government subsidy of Rs 5,700 crore, they are left with a deficit of around Rs 13,000 crore, which they wanted to pass on to the consumers.

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