New Hiked Power Tariffs for Domestic and Industrial Consumers

The state power utilities have decided for tariff hikes and tariff revision, for 10 sections of consumers including low-tension (LT) domestic, LT commercial, LT industrial, high-tension (HT) industrial, HT ferro alloys and HT commercial. Only the lowest slab of power consumers in the category of LT domestic users, who use less than 100 units are spared from the hike.

The discoms have proposed these power hikes to meet their annual revenue requirement (ARR) for the financial year of 2012-13. The hiked tariffs which became effective from April 1, 2012, are supposed to impact 43% of the total 2.57 crore consumers in AP.

However, discoms have made these new tariff policies, also considering the poorer sections of society. The LT domestic power consumers who use less than 500 units per month (who amount for 1.42 crore consumers or 57% of the total consumers) are left untouched. And most importantly, out of the total 2.57 crore power consumers in the state, 1.42 crore consumers, including 29.8 lakh farmers will remain unaffected by the tariff hike. The categories which are left untouched by the tariff hike are:

• Seven hours of free power to farmers
• No hike for domestic consumers in the 0-50 slab
• LT small commercial establishments – no hike in 0-50 slab
• Cottage industries, dhobi ghats, power looms, carpentry, blacksmithy, kanchari, goldsmithy and pottery
• Pisciculture, prawn culture and sugar cane crushing
  street-lighting and public water supply schemes in minor and major panchayats
• HT lift irrigation schemes

The details of hike in domestic tariff rates as per the units is as follows:

APERC has done no major tariff revisions in the last nine years except for a marginal increase in the restricted categories in 2010-11.

Source: Indian Express and Business Standard