Reliance Energy told to cut tariffs

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) Friday ordered that Reliance Energy's average tariff be reduced by 8.5 per cent. In an order, the commission said the revised tariff would be applicable from July 1, 2004.

The order came in response to REL's tariff proposal in September 2003. The order will benefit Reliance Energy's customer base of around 2.33 million in Mumbai.

Under the revised tariff plan for most of the categories, in the residential and commercial sections the number of slabs have been reduced from four to three.

The tariffs applicable to the residential category would be telescopic, that is, consumers falling in the higher slabs would have to pay higher tariffs only for the consumption in that slab and not on the total consumption as at present, MERC said in a press note.

The commission has introduced a two-part tariff for all consumer categories and eliminated the minimum charges and merged metre rent with the fixed charges.

The security deposit payable by consumers shall be payable to the average of three months billing or of the billing cycle period, whichever is less. In the case of excess security deposit paid by any consumer, it will be refunded in the next bill.

For most categories, the demand charges have been fixed at Rs 374/KVA per month. The revenue from fixed charges as a share of fixed cost is likely to increase from 10 per cent to 37 per cent on account of the increase in demand charges. Meanwhile, the existing fuel adjustment charge has been merged with the basic tariff.