Election bonanza: UP domestic power tariff not hiked

In an election bonanza, domestic power consumers in Uttar Pradesh have been spared from electricity tariff hike for 2016-17. The state will go into polls in early 2017.

While private tube wells employed in agriculture have also been excluded from the proposed hike, government run tube wells, however, will get increased power bills by 7.55%.

However, average power tariffs across all categories of consumers have been increased by 3.18% against 5.47% in 2015.

Interestingly, tariffs have also not been hiked for the large and heavy industries, while the small and medium enterprises will witness power tariffs going up by almost 4%.

UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) on Monday approved the new tariffs for the different category of consumers in the state. The new rates will be effective 7 days after power utility UP Power Corporation (UPPCL) issues a public notice in this regard.

As mandated, UPERC approves new power tariffs based on the annual revenue requirement (ARR) filed by the state power utilities, which includes details about their estimated income, expenditure, power demand, supply, etc., for the coming year.

The average power hike for small and medium industries, commercial, and public utilities/ government undertakings stand at 3.99%, 7.24% and 8.83%, respectively.

Besides, tariff has been hiked by 5.33% for 'other' categories of consumers, including societies, schools, etc.

Addressing the media here, UPERC chairman Desh Deepak Verma said the Commission had prepared an action plan to gradually move towards multi-year tariff plan, which will be effective for three years against the current norm of one year.

"This would allow the power utilities to plan for three years and help rationalise the power demand and supply matrices," he underlined.