MERC approves tariff hike of 3.9% for Tata Power, 5.2% of RInfra users in Greater Mumbai

Revised tariff to be effective from June 1

Consumers of Tata Power (Distribution) and Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra (Distribution) in Greater Mumbai will have to pay higher electricity tariff with effective from June 1. The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) in its order on the multi-year tariff proposals has approved 3.9 per cent overall increase in average tariff of Tata Power and 5.2 per cent of R-Infra for the year 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15.

Tata Power had sought the tariff cut of 6 per cent while R-Infra had pleaded for an average tariff increase of 18 per cent. Tata Power has about 600,000 consumers in the city and suburbs. About 5,38,000 consumers are availing supply from Tata Power on R-Infra’s wires. Of these, 5,06,000 are residential consumers. About 87% of the residential consumers use less than 300 units a month. On the other hand, R-Infra supplies power to 2.9 million consumers, especially in the northern and western suburbs. Out of these, about 500,000 residential consumers have migrated to Tata Power. However, almost all these consumers continue to avail network service of R-Infra distribution.

Tata Power consumers with the monthly consumption of 0-100 units will now have to pay per unit tariff of Rs 2.05 against Rs 2.62, a 21 per cent cut and for 101-300 units the tariff has been reduced by 7 per cent to Rs 4.21 from Rs 4.56.  For low tension (LT) commercial consumers with consumption of 0-20 kW, the per unit tariff has been increased by 4.69% to Rs 8.70 from Rs 8.31 and for LT industrial consumers up to 20 kW the tariff has been hiked to Rs 8.07 from Rs 7.61, a rise of six per cent. However, for LT consumers above 20 kW it has been decreased by one per cent to Rs 8.55 from Rs 8.56.

In case of R-Infra consumers with monthly consumption of 0-100 units the per unit tariff has been increased by 3.90 per cent to R 4.79 from Rs 4.61 and for 101-300 units hiked by 3.64 per cent to Rs 6.54 from Rs 6.31. The LT commercial consumers of 0-20 kW will now have to pay Rs 8.05 against Rs 7.39, an increase of 8.93% and for LT industrial consumers of up to 20 kW to Rs 8.85 from Rs 8.22, a rise of 8 per cent. Further, the LT industrial consumers with consumption above 20 kW will now be charged Rs 8.76 against Rs 7.93 (11%).

MERC has allowed R Infra's (Distribution) power purchase expenses of Rs 14,570 crore against company's demand for Rs 15,733 crore over the period from FY 2012-13 to FY 2015-16. On the other hand, MERC has approved the power purchase expenses of Rs 12,208 crore as compared to Rs 12,019 crore sought by TPC (Distribution) over the period from FY 2012-13 to FY 2015-16.

Moreover, MERC has allowed cumulative revenue gap for the period from FY 2012-13 to FY 2015-16 of Rs 313 crore for R-Infra (D) against its demand of Rs 1,947 crore and for TPC (D) Rs 760 crore against Rs 1,673 crore.  As far as the average cost of supply (ACOS) for FY 2015-16 is concerned, MERC has approved Rs 8.23 per unit against Rs 10.28 per unit for R-Infra (D) and for TPC (D) Rs 7.71 per kWh as compared to Rs 10.11 per unit.