THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The power tariff in the state is set to go up from April 1. Mentioning the upward revision for the next five years, Power Minister K Krishnankutty told a TV channel the move is aimed at meeting the loss incurred by the Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (KSEBL). The minister’s claim created confusion as the Board was caught unawares about the tariff hike.
Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC), which finalises power tariff hikes after holding a series of public hearings, also criticised the minister’s unilateral announcement. KSEBL had last hiked the power tariff on July 8, 2019.
Following the minister’s revelation in the morning, KSEBL on Thursday began preliminary deliberations to finalise the power tariff petition, which has to be filed by December 31. By evening, however, the minister retracted his statement. He said KSEBL would move a tariff petition to the commission after detailed consultations.
“The news of a 10% increase in power tariff rates is just a rumour,” said Krishnankutty. His claim in the morning and the retraction in the evening forced KSEBL to come up with a press release. Board chairman B Ashok said it’s the prerogative of the regulatory commission to announce the new tariff — likely by late March. As of now, no decision has been taken to increase the rates, he told TNIE.
“The gap between cost and revenue will be assessed after collating data from our tariff and commercial divisions. Based on this, we will start working on the power tariff petition which has to be filed by December 31. So how can the state increase the tariff at this juncture? The regulatory commission will decide on the rate of increase after holding public hearings, which might last for two months,” said Ashok.
The minister said KSERC has decided to drop certain controversial clauses on fixing power tariff slabs. This, he said, was done after the Board expressed its dissent to the regulatory commission’s proposal. As per the earlier draft, the regulatory panel had proposed different power tariffs for the Board and the 10 supply network licence holders like Technopark, Special Economic Zone, Thrissur Corporation and Kanan Devan Tea Co. The Board had highlighted the issue of reducing cross-subsidy which would have sent the power bills soaring.