The hike in power tariffs announced by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission is not at all industry-friendly and would push up electricity bills in the sector, the Kerala High Tension (HT)-Extra High Tension (EHT) Industrial Electricity Consumers' Association which represents major industries in the State has said.
While the Commission has increased tariffs by 6.6% overall for all categories of consumers, for the high-end industrial consumers alone, the hike comes to approximately 11% to 12%, which is almost double, according to representatives of the association.
''Such a bad treatment is being meted out to industries for the first time in the history of the tariff revision. It also goes against the State government's policy of building an industry-friendly state,'' A. R. Satheesh, president of the association, said. The average tariff hike for EHT industries alone is 11 to 12 %. In 66 kV and 110 kV (industries) tariff categories, the Commission has ''blindly accepted'' the KSEB proposals, he added.
For the EHT-66 kV Industries category, the KSEB had sought the energy charge to be raised from ₹5.50 per unit to ₹6 per unit and the demand charge from ₹340 to ₹400. The same - an increase of 9.9% and 17.65% respectively - has been approved by the Commission.
For the EHT Industrial (110 kV) category - the tariff applicable to manufacturing industries - the demand charge has risen from ₹330 to ₹390 (18.18%) and the energy charge from ₹5.40 to ₹5.90 per unit (9.26%), the same as the KSEB recommendation. For the EHT 220 kV Industries category, the demand charge has been hiked from ₹320 to ₹360 (12.5%) and energy charge from ₹5 to ₹5.30 (6%).
The association points out that the existing rates could have been decreased or retained given the fact that the KSEB has logged a revenue surplus of ₹81.86 crore in 2020-21 and an operating profit of ₹1,466 crore in 2021-22.
