HYDERABAD: There will be no power tariff hike for around 80 lakh out of the 88 lakh domestic consumers in the State. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) on Friday announced an overall average tariff hike of 4.42% for those consuming more than 200 units per month. Since around 80 lakh consumers do not consume as much, the revised tariff doesn’t apply to them. According to TSERC Chairman Ismail Ali Khan, the revised tariff will come into effect from April 1.
Similarly, there will be no tariff hike for 18 lakh consumers of agriculture and cottage industries. And, no tariff hike for around 6 lakh small non-domestic consumers either. The average increase in tariff for domestic consumers is 1.3 per cent and the overall average hike is 4.42 per cent. The Discoms had proposed an average hike of 4.9 per cent. Slabs of consumption between 401-500 units and above 500 units have been merged into a single slab of above 400 units. The State government has also agreed to provide subsidy of `4,257 crore, which includes `30 crore for poultry farmers. The tariff for poultry farms has been reduced from `5.60 per unit to `3.60. The total number of consumers projected in the State for the year is around 1.2 crore.
While estimating that power supply would be around 52,000 million units for the year, the ERC estimated that TS will get its share of power from Lower Sileru, Pulichintala, Krishnapatnam and Hinduja power plants, besides an increase in solar power production.
“In case, TS does not get its share in Hinduja and Krishnapatnam, the burden will be around `300 crore on the State to purchase additional power,” ERC sources said. It is estimated that the State will get 3,650 million units from Hinduja and 5,600 million units from Krishnapatnam in 2015-16. Though the Discoms proposed 2 per cent hike in fuel cost, the ERC rejected the same.