All categories of power consumers in Telangana would have to burn their purse further from April 1 as Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) has approved the two power distribution companies’ (Discoms) plea to increase retail supply tariff by a minimum of ₹0.50 per unit for domestic consumers to ₹1 per unit for others.
The consumers have to bear additional burden in the form of enhancement in customer service and other charges besides increase in energy charges. In terms of monthly bill, even a domestic category consumers with consumption of 100 units would have to pay at least ₹100 more a month from April 1. The existing tariff was determined in 2018-19.
The regulatory body, which announced the retail supply tariff for 2022-23 on Wednesday, has approved increase of an average 14% in the tariff against 18% sought by the two Discoms. Against the aggregate revenue requirement of ₹53,054 crore claimed by the two utilities, the Commission has determined it at ₹48,708 crore.
It has allowed the Discoms to mobilise ₹5,597 crore as incremental revenue from the revised tariff, another ₹419 crore from cross-subsidy and other surcharges and ₹8,221 crore subsidy committed by the government to plug the revenue gap of over ₹14,237 crore, as determined at the existing tariff.
Power tariff has been revised in the State after a gap of 3 years and compared to the revenue requirement determined by the Commission for 2018-19 last time the requirement approved for 2022-23 is up by nearly ₹18,700 crore. The retail supply tariff announced by the Commission mentioned that the power subsidy committed by the State Government for 2022-23 was higher by ₹2,281 crore compared to the previous year.
In its tariff supply order, the regulatory body has put the arrears of the two Discoms at a whopping ₹17,202 crore including ₹12,600 crore from different government departments. The Commission has directed the Discoms to achieve 100% metering of agricultural distribution transformers within two years and appraise it of quarterly progress in the matter.
It has approved introduction of fixed charges for domestic consumers at ₹10/kilowatt per month and also increase in customer charges.
However, it has not revised the tariff for hair saloons consuming energy up to 200 units a month, cottage industries, agro-based activities and increased the upper limit of connected load for sheep, goat and dairy farming to 15 HP from the existing 10 HP and not revised time-of-day incentive during off-peak hours.
The Commission has allowed introduction of demand charges for ferro alloy units with discontinuation of guaranteed off-take and introduced fixed, demand, customer charges for EV charging stations. But, it has deferred proposal for levy of grid support charges on captive power plants and increased upper limit of contract load for rice mills from 100 HP to 125 HP.
It has also not approved levy of facilitation charges for open access consumers and approved introduction of optional category of green tariff for high-tension industrial and commercial consumers fulfilling renewable power procurement requirement at ₹0.66 per unit.
