The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) today announced no major changes in its tariff schedule for 2017-18, but hiked the fixed charges for consumers with 3-5 KW connections in the range of Rs 5-Rs 75.
The new tariff schedule will come into effect from September 1, DERC member B P Singh said at a press conference here.
"The new tariff schedule has been prepared considering affordability and paying capacity of consumers," he said.
The commission has accepted the Delhi government's recommendation for funding an amount of Rs 694 crore for the Pension Trust, to be met by a surcharge of 3.7 per cent payable by the consumers. This will be besides the additional surcharge paid by consumers at 8 per cent rate.
In a move aimed at benefiting consumers running small-scale commercial establishments, the power regulator has decided to deem all such consumers having 5 KW load connection as domestic consumers.
Earlier, this clause was only applicable to those in slum areas, but now it will be applicable across the city, Singh said.
Gaushalas and paying guest accommodations registered under any scheme of the Delhi government will also be covered under the domestic category, Singh said.
The DERC has also benefited low end domestic consumers with sanctioned load upto 1 KW, reducing their fixed charge from Rs 40 to Rs 20 per month. For those having 2 KW load connection, the fixed charge will remain Rs 40.
The fixed charge for consumers having 3 KW load has been revised from Rs 100 to Rs 105. For 4 KW load, the fixed charge has been raised by Rs 40, while for 5 KW it has been hiked by Rs 75, it said.
The fixed charge hikes will result in 0.14-1.13 per cent increase in power bills of the low-end domestic consumers, i.E. Nearly 15 per cent of all domestic consumers in the city will be affected.
The domestic consumers number around half of the total consumers of the three power distribution companies in the national capital.
The DERC has created a separate category for charging stations, especially for e-rickshaws and other e-vehicles, having a flat rate of Rs 5.50 per KWh.
The limit for sanctioned load for agriculture category has been increased from 10 KW to 20 KW.
The last tariff revision of 5 per cent was in July 2014.
Power experts said Delhi's total revenue gap (regulatory assets) owed to the three discoms, including BSES companies BRPL and BYPL and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), is over Rs 34,000 crore till 2015-2016.
Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia hailed the DERC decision of not hiking the energy fares.
He told reporters here that the AAP government has not allowed any hike in power tariff for three consecutive years, whereas in BJP-ruled states, power tariff has been increased upto two times.
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