Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) are preparing to impose another burden on consumers through the Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) for the first quarter of 2012-13.
Closely following the 20 to 40 per cent tariff hike effected in April this year which had put a burden of Rs 4,500 crore on consumers, the burden due to FSA would be around Rs 2,165.98 crore, in other words, around Rs 1.62 per unit of electricity used.
The FSA is the power utility’s additional expenditure incurred over and above the fixed power tariff, for fuel like gas and coal used to generate power or purchase power.
The four discoms in the state submitted the FSA proposals to the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) on Thursday. The commission has called for written objections or suggestions on the proposal before August 31, after which it would conduct a public hearing.
It may be recalled that the AP High Court had set aside the decision of the discoms to collect FSA with regard to 2009-10. The additional amount that was levied in the July bill this year was adjusted in the next bill.
The order was made on a batch of writ petitions that questioned the additional levy. In January this year, the court had directed discoms not to recover Rs 1,650 crore from consumers for 2008-09, but they had ignored and proceeded to levy it for the financial year as well.
As per the APERC Act, the discoms must submit their FSA proposals within 30 days of the completion of every quarter. However, for various reasons, the discoms submitted FSA proposals after completion of the year. In a recent meeting, the APERC directed discoms to submit the proposals for 2012-13 immediately, which they did on Thursday.