Rise reasonable: Punjab State Power Corp CMD

Punjab State Power Corporation Chairman and Managing Director K D Chaudhri on Monday said Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s revision in rates, effective April 1, 2012, was reasonable, compared to the steep rate rises in other states. He said the rate rise of 12.08 per cent in Punjab was much lower than the increase in rates in the states of Tamil Nadu (37 per cent), Rajasthan (27 per cent), Delhi (26 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (20.24 per cent) and Haryana (17 per cent). He added rates in the industrial & commercial categories in Haryana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka were much higher than the rates in Punjab. Chaudhri said most states had two rates in the domestic category — one was based on the connected load and other on consumption. Therefore, even in states where rates appeared to be low, consumers actually had to pay high charges. He added Punjab did not have any fixed charge, and consumers only paid for the electricity they used.