THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An overall power tariff hike of 6.6% came into effect in the state from Saturday midnight for all domestic, high tension and extra high tension consumers. For the 1.03 crore domestic consumers, there will be an increase of 25 paise per unit of power, according to Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman Preman Dinaraj, who announced the tariff revision for 2022-23.
Contrary to the norm of announcing the multi-year tariff (for five years), the regulatory commission has decided to come up with the tariff revision only for this fiscal as Kerala State Electricity Board Limited had shown a turnaround of Rs 20 crore regulatory operational profit in 2020-21. The tariff revision will help KSEBL earn over Rs 1,000 crore more in revenue.
The demand put forth by KSEBL before the regulatory commission was for a 70 paise hike per unit. Rallying behind the domestic consumers’ welfare following two years of pandemic, however, the commission has gone for only 25 paise hike for a single unit. The BPL families with connected load up to 1,000 watts and having monthly consumption up to 40 units don’t have tariff revision.
About 25 lakh domestic consumers who have monthly consumption up to 50 units also don’t face tariff revision. Orphanages, anganwadis and old age homes will also get hike exemption and this will benefit 35,200 consumers. The other sections who will benefit include 4.76 lakh agriculture consumers, endosulfan victims in Kasaragod, cancer patients, disabled persons, polio-stricken people and accident victims who consume up to 150 units power per month.
“The revised tariff rate has come into effect from Saturday following the gazette notification. If KSEBL performs well, it will benefit the consumers. For the first time, it has shown a regulatory operational profit of Rs 20 crore during 2020-21, though the CAG, in its auditing, had shown the board facing a loss of Rs 10,000 crore. By next year, if KSEBL earns profit, the regulatory commission can revise the tariff rate accordingly, which explains why we have announced the tariff only for this fiscal year,” said Jinaraj.
Compared to 29.5% and 8% hike implemented by KSERC in 2012 and 2013, respectively, the overall hike of 6.6% this time has come as a huge relief to the consumers, he said. The authorities have claimed that compared to the other states, Kerala has a lower power tariff rate. The KSERC has put forth a slew of recommendations before KSEBL on how to reduce its expenditure, including bringing down the price in the power purchase agreement by market intervention, bringing in austerity measures and not renewing the various contracts following their expiry.
EV CHARGING STATIONS CAN BILL F8 PER UNIT
T’Puram: The electricity regulatory commission on Saturday put a tariff ceiling of Rs 8 per unit for electric vehicle charging stations in the state. Currently, there is no uniform tariff and there are complaints that charging stations charge consumers as per their will. The tariff revision approved by the commission for EV charging stations suggests an increase of Rs 15 in fixed charge from Rs 75 to Rs 90. The energy charge levied by the KSEB for EV charging will go up from Rs 5 to Rs 5.50.