BENGALURU : The monthly electricity bill of an average middle-class household will increase by 5.92 per cent with effect from this month. A consumer who paid Rs 1,352 a month for consuming 200 units of 3KW power will now have to pay Rs 1,432.
This is because, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has revised the power tariff and hiked it by 40 paise per unit with an average increase of 5.40 per cent, compared to 33 paise per unit last year. The steep rise in tariff is attributed to the rise in costs the Escoms are facing annually in transmission and maintenance. The KERC Commissioner issued the revision orders on Wednesday after holding a virtual meeting with the heads of all the Escoms.
Tariff hike delayed by lockdown
The revision comes into effect from November 1 and will reflect in the December bill. Normally, the revision is done in April, but this year due to the lockdown, election code of conduct and pendency of an appeal filed by KPTCL before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, the exercise was delayed.
The commission has noted that against the revenue gap of Rs 2,473 crore, an amount of Rs 1,443 crore that would have been recovered as additional revenue towards tariff revision from April 1, 2020, has been kept as regulatory asset. The KERC has approved a slab-wise increase in the tariffs ranging between 20-25 paise per unit across all categories, except Bengaluru Metro and battery charging stations for electric vehicles. There is also an increase of 50 paise per unit for temporary installations.
It also approved an increase in fixed charges by Rs 10 per kilowatt/HP/kVA. The commission has withdrawn the Re 1 penalty it had imposed on high-tension (HT) industrial consumption for morning peak hour usage between 6 am and 10am and increased the rebate from 100 paise to 105 paise for installing LED lights in public spaces. It has ordered to impose a penalty of up to Rs 1 lakh if Escoms fail to hold consumer interaction meetings at every sub- division office once in three months.
In the revision order, KERC has not hiked the charges for electric vehicles in HT and low tension (LT) categories, and the existing concessional tariff of Rs 5 per unit will continue. This concessional tariff has also been extended to battery swapping units. A KERC official explained that for domestic consumers, offices and hospitals in Bescom limits, the overall increase in tariff is 25 paise per unit. In the case of LT industrial consumers in Bescom limits, the new tariff will be Rs 5.90 from the existing Rs 5.65 for the first 500 units and Rs 7.35 per unit from Rs 7.10 in case of HT consumers.
For commercial users, the tariff in all Escoms has been hiked to Rs 8.25 from the existing Rs 8 for first 50 units. For HT commercial consumers in Bescom limits, the tariff has been hiked to Rs 9.15 from Rs 8.90 for first two lakh units. The commission has also hiked the tariff for LT water supply installations from Rs 4.60 to Rs 4.85 per unit and from Rs 5.20 to Rs 5.45 per unit for HT consumers.
Meanwhile, Bescom Director (Finance) R C Chetan said last year, the power utility had asked KERC to hike the tariff by 81 paise, but it was hiked by 38 paise. “This time, we had asked for 196 paise raise, but it has been hiked by 40 paise. The hike this year was made based on last year’s gap.”
‘Revision a disaster’
Energy expert MG Prabhakar said that nothing could be so disastrous than this revision. The panel should have considered the pending and future liabilities too. Investments and production will take a hit because of the regulatory asset creation of Rs 1,443 crore.