Power gets cheaper in HP

In a significant decision taken by the Himachal Pradesh state electricity regulatory commission, electricity tariffs, for most categories of consumers in Himachal Pradesh, have been reduced by 10 to 35 per cent.

Tariffs for small and medium industry in the state have been reduced by 15 paise per unit and for the large industry by 10 paise per cent. The state's hotel industry has also benefited, particularly small hotels as demand charges have been reduced.

Now hostels, orphanages and charitable institutions will be in the domestic instead of commercial category.

In the domestic category the slabs of 0 to 45 units and 46 to 150 units have been merged and tariff consumption of up to 150 units has been fixed at Rs 1.75 per unit.

Earlier, consumers paid Rs 2.10 per unit in the unit slab of 4-150 units. Also, the tariff for the 151-300 unit slab has been replaced with a rate of Rs 2.65 per unit.

The tariff for non-domestic commercial category has not been changed and will continue to be Rs 3.65 per unit. The energy charges for small and medium industry have been reduced to Rs 3.40 per unit from Rs 3.55 per unit.

But rates for water pumping supply have been raised by 20 to 25 paise per unit for LT and HT supply. The rate for bulk supply has been reduced in case of HT supply from Rs 2.15 to Rs 2 per unit but LT will continue to pay Rs 2.70 per unit.

The state electricity regulatory commission has rapped HPSEB and the Himachal Pradesh government for its failure to carry out the much needed structural reforms in the power sector.

"The regulatory policy is increasingly shaping the structure and conduct of the power sector across the globe but the state utility has struggled with its responses to the changing scenario," the commission stated.

The commission pointed out that the HPSEB was overstaffed and the per employee cost was Rs 1.05 per unit which was far higher than neighbouring hill state Uttaranchal where it was only 33 paise per unit.

The commission said though the board was overstaffed, it was facing a shortage of certain category of engineers and other technical staff.