HYDERABAD: The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) conducted a public hearing on Genco’s proposal to collect an additional Rs 963.18 crore true-up charges during 2024-25. Several stakeholders attended the hearing and submitted their views.
The Genco’s proposal was intended to collect additional cost incurred on power generation.
Meanwhile, ERC chairman T Sriranga Rao, whose term ends on October 29, is currently conducting similar public hearings.
The ERC will conduct another public hearing on Tuesday on the Transco’s proposal on a multiyear tariff for 2024-29 with regard to transmission, business and SLDC activities.
The Transco in its petition stated that it requires Rs 16,346.1 crore revenue for the next five years, which is Rs 584.59 crore higher than the revenue requirement for 2019-2024.
Meanwhile, the Discoms submitted aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) for 2024-25 with a proposal to collect Rs 1,200 crore additional revenue from domestic and industrial customers. The hearing on the ARRs submitted by two Discoms will be conducted in Hyderabad on Wednesday and in Nizamabad on Thursday. Though the Discoms did not propose any burden in the domestic customers, they proposed to increase the power tariff and fixed charges from HT consumers. The Discoms propose to collect Rs 700 crore from power tariff and Rs 100 crore under fixed charges from HT consumers.
Reject the proposal: BRS
Meanwhile, a BRS delegation, led by its working president KT Rama Rao and former Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy, submitted a memorandum to the ERC during Monday’s public hearing with a request to not accept the proposals of the power utilities to hike the tariff.
Rama Rao alleged that the proposed electricity tariff hike by the Congress government could impose a Rs 18,500 crore burden on the public. He requested the ERC to reject the proposals put forth.
Rama Rao said that nine proposals made by the Discoms would severely impact the financial well-being of the people. One key proposal suggests increasing fixed charges for households consuming more than 300 units per month, raising it from Rs 10 to Rs 50 and termed it as “highly dangerous”.
He said that grouping of all industries under a single category for tariff purposes was an ill-conceived and unfair idea, which could harm the industrial sector. “Such a move is unprecedented in the state and poses a grave threat to the state’s progress,” he said.
“When Discoms proposed a hike for a true-up charge of `1,200 crore, (the then CM) KCR said that the government would absorb the cost without burdening the public,” he added.
