Delhi Congress today slammed power regulator DERC's decision to hike the power tariff for domestic consumers by upto 7.5 per cent, saying it will put additional burden on people already reeling under price rise.
Describing it as an "anti-people" decision, DPCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, accused the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) of hiking the tariff coming "under pressure" from BJP.
"The decision to withdraw the PPCA for three months is a total betrayal of people. Arvind Kejriwal had also betrayed the people in similar fashion by reducing the tariff for three months with an eye on the Parliamentary elections," Lovely alleged.
Demanding immediate roll back of the hike, he said, "The BJP leaders had talked of giving 30 per cent subsidy in the power bills before Parliament and Delhi Assembly elections, and those announcements have proved to be false."
Power tariff in Delhi was hiked by up to 7.5 per cent for domestic consumers but power bills of 80 per cent consumers will come down as the DERC withdrew a surcharge of up to 8 per cent for next three months.
For commercial consumers, DERC hiked the power rates by up to 11 per cent.
Despite the hikes, the regulator claimed the power bills of 80 per cent of the consumers, whose monthly consumption does not exceed 400 units, will witness some marginal decline as it has subsumed the power purchase adjustment cost (PPAC) for next three months.
The PPAC surcharge will be reviewed in November.
DPCC chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said the power tariff hike has "completely exposed the hollow promises of the BJP".
Sharma claimed that power bills have doubled in the past two months in Delhi and despite paying higher tariff, people were still not getting 24-hour power supply.
