THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The electricity tariff for households will rise, on an average, by 24 per cent from Saturday, while industrial consumers will have to pay broadly 10 per cent more on their electricity bills. The highly-subsidised agriculture tariff, on the other hand, will go up by 30 per cent.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission on Thursday passed orders approving the 2014-15 budget of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) with amendments and revising electricity tariff in the state. The new tariff, applicable up to March 31, 2015, will come into effect on Saturday.
Although the KSEB had hoped to collect an additional revenue of Rs 1,414 crore through the revision, the hike allowed by the commission will add a revenue of only Rs 1,027 crore. The actual revenue will be approximately Rs 600 crore as the hike will not have a retrospective effect.
Although the KSEB had projected a revenue gap of Rs 2,931 crore for the 2014-15 fiscal, the commission whittled it down to Rs 1,094 crore. As per the commission’s order, the KSEB Aggregate Revenue Requirement for the fiscal will be Rs 10,220 crore and expected revenue from charges will be Rs 9,126 crore.
KSEB had recommended an overhaul of tariff slabs for domestic category. The commission has allowed it with changes. A big amendment is the ‘downgrading’ of the ceiling for ‘telescopic’ tariff to 250 units from 300 units. This means, from the 251st unit, ‘non-telescopic’ or flat tariff will apply. (Non-telescopic means you pay same tariff for every unit consumed. In telescopic system, tariff increases by stages). KSEB plea was ceiling should be fixed at 200 units.