HYDERABAD: The Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (TGERC) has rejected the proposal of the Discoms to hike the power charges for the high tension (HT) consumers from Rs 7.15 to Rs 7.65 per unit.
With this, there will be no hike in power tariff for any category of consumer for 2024-25, i.e., for the next five months.
The Commission, which conducted public hearings on October 23 and 24 on the aggregate revenue requirements (ARRs) submitted by the Discoms for 2024-25, announced the order on power tariff on Monday.
It may be recalled that the Discoms proposed tariff hike only for HT consumers, but the ERC rejected it too.
Accordingly, the existing power tariff for all categories of consumers would continue for the next five months.
A day before his tenure ended, ERC chairman T Sriranga Rao convened a press meet and announced that there was no tariff hike for any category of consumer. He said that the HT tariff proposal was also rejected.
The Commission also rejected the proposal of the Discoms to club 11 kV, 33 kV and 131 kV categories into one and collect 11 kV tariff for all the three categories. The proposal to hike the fixed charges for the consumers, who consume beyond 300 units per month, from Rs 10 to Rs 50 too was rejected by the Commission.
ARR of Rs 54K cr approved by ERC
However, the ERC accepted the proposal to hike the fixed charges from Rs 10 to Rs 50 for consumers whose consumption will be more than 800 units per month.
For non-domestic consumers, whose consumption is more than 300 units per month, the Discoms proposed to hike the fixed charges from Rs 70 to Rs 150. However, the ERC agreed to a hike of Rs 100. The ERC also accepted the proposal to hike the fixed charges from Rs 70 to Rs 150 for hoardings. For industries, the revised fixed charges will be Rs 100 per month.
As against the total aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) of Rs 57,728.90 crore claimed by the Discoms, the Commission has approved the ARR of Rs 54,183 crore for 2024-25.
Shocker to Discoms
As per the clause 29.2 of Regulation No 2 of 2-23, in case the petitioner delays in filing the petition, there is a provision of a reduction in rate of return on equity (RoE) by 0.5 per cent per month or part thereof.
Genco, Transco, SLDC and Discoms have filed the petitions in August and September, 2024 as against the timeline of January 31, 2024. Thus, the Commission has taken a lenient view and restricted the reduction of rate of RoE for this year alone. The impact of RoE for Genco will be Rs 396 crore, Transco Rs 119 crore and for Discoms Rs 69 crore.
As against the total revenue gap at the proposed tariff of Rs 13,022.25 crore claimed by Discoms, the Commission approved the revenue gap of only Rs 11,156.40 crore.
Govt subsidy increased
The subsidy commitment by the state government has been increased by around 26 per cent (Rs 2,374.7 crore) compared to the previous year. The subsidy commitment by the government for LT-1 domestic will be Rs 1,699.45 crore and for LT V agriculture it is Rs 9,800.07 crore taking the total to Rs 11,499.52 crore.
Reduction in power tariff
The Commission said there was an overall reduction of 0.47 per cent in tariff with respect to current tariff.
However, it will not have any direct impact on consumers. The reasons for reduction tariff are: Genco filed true-up charges of Rs 969 crore. However, the Commission rejected it and asked Genco to pay Rs 292 crore to Discoms. On the other hand, the penalty imposed by the Discoms too helped in reduction of tariff.
Farmer friendly
Increase in upper limit of connected load for sheep farming, goat farming and dairy farming activities from 15 HP to 25 HP
Removal of clause of minimum amount of Rs 30 per month for cottage industries.
No change in tariff for agriculture.