VIJAYAWADA: Maintaining that there will be a marginal increase of electricity charges of consumers as per the Retail Supply Tariff Order released by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC), Secretary (Energy) B Sridhar on Thursday said as the APERC fixed the tariff based on a single telescopic method, the burden will be less.
He said there will be no increase in the unit price as a whole under the method. If a consumer consumes 35 units, the charge will be Rs 1.90 per unit for the first 30 units and Rs 3 for the remaining 5 units. The APERC came up with six different slabs based on the appeals from the public. In the slab system, there is a certain price for 0 to 50 units. When a consumer uses more than 50 units, the bill will be generated as per the rates of the next slab for the whole consumption, thereby causing a huge burden on consumers.
If a consumer consumes 250 units, the tariff will be Rs 1.90 per unit for the first 30 units, Rs 3 from 31 units to 75 units, Rs 4.50 from 76 to 125 units, Rs 6 from 126 to 225 units and Rs 8.5 from 226 to 250 units, he explained.
Speaking to mediapersons, along with Special Secretary to CM (Finance and Economic Affairs) Duvvuri Krishna Sridhar said consumers will be burdened to the tune of Rs 1,400 crore per year with the new tariff. Another Rs 700 crore will be an additional burden on consumers per year as true-up charges. Thus, the overall burden on consumers will be Rs 2,100 crore per year, he noted.
Informing that the State consumes 74% of thermal power, 21% of Renewable Energy and the remaining hydel power, he said as the coal costs, as well as transportation charges, are increasing year-by-year, Discoms are incurring losses. “As there are no coal mines in AP, we are getting it from Telangana and Odisha. As the demand for power will increase further in the future, there is a need for strengthening Discoms to meet the demand, he asserted.
He made it clear that the decision to increase power charges was taken by the APERC and not by the State government. About 50% of families in the State use less than 75 units per month and there will be a nominal burden on them.
Compared to tariff increase of Rs 5,596 crore in neighbouring Telangana, the tariff hike in AP is to the extent of Rs ,1400 crore only. At the same time, the State government is committed to extending a subsidy of Rs 11,123 crore to consumers. As against the average consumption of 180 million units, the demand has increased to 230 million units in the current summer, he added.