THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Come July 1, electricity consumers are expected to feel the heat as the KSEB sought Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (KSERC) permission for a tariff hike in its sitting on Monday.
KSERC completed its four regional-level hearings in the capital city which saw the board seeking a hike of 25 paise to 80 paise per unit for domestic consumers. Domestic consumers have been feeling the pinch after the board imposed a surcharge of 30 paise per unit to recoup from the additional expense incurred in purchasing electricity from outside during July 1-September 2022. There was a drastic rise in surcharge from 9 paise per unit to 30 paise per unit during February this year.
Now the board has come out with a recommendation before the regulatory commission seeking a tariff hike for the next five years. M G Suresh Kumar, president, KSEB Officers’ Association, told TNIE that KSERC has approved the aggregate revenue requirements (ARR) and expected revenue from charges (ERC).
“There is no dispute on ARR and ERC as it has already been fixed. The hearing was on tariff petition and not on ARR. The present proposal to increase power tariff is being taken up to address the gap of 4 per cent incurred by KSEB. For domestic consumers, a 5 - 6 per cent increase will affect their bills. But there will not be much increase for industrial consumers as already their tariff rates are on the higher side,” said Suresh Kumar.
In last June, the KSERC had announced a 6.6 per cent hike in power tariff in the state across all segments. There was an increase of 25 paise per unit for the 1.03 crore domestic consumers in the state then. Contrary to the norm of announcing the Multi Year Tariff (for five years), the KSERC had decided to come out with the tariff revision for the period 2022-23 alone as the KSEB was showing a turnaround of `20 crore in regulatory operational profit.
Past hike
Last June, KSERC announced a 6.6 per cent hike in power tariff in the state across all segments.There was an increase of 25 paisa per unit of power for the 1.03 crore domestic consumers in Kerala then