Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said the move to hike electricity tariff in Delhi is a decision taken by the DERC on the basis of costing.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) and Central Regulatory Commission (CERC) are fully independent and autonomous bodies, Goyal said in a Facebook post.
"The decision to increase electricity tariff in Delhi is a regulatory decision by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on the basis of costing," he added.
Quoting Delhi High Court's judgement in the case of Nand Kishore Garg V/s Govt of NCT & Others, dated May 23, 2011, the Minister said DERC is required to deal with power tariffs in a transparent manner.
Para 74(f) of the judgement says: "The Commission under the 2003 Act is required to deal with the aspect of tariff determination with intellectual integrity, transparent functionalism and normative objectivity and not act in a manner by which its functioning invite doubt with regard to its credibility."
"For the present, people who consume less than 800 units a month who are under the ambit of three private DisComs (TPDDL, BRPL and BYPL), will actually see a reduction in their electricity bill! This will surely provide some relief to the common man. Moreover, we will certainly find ways to see how consumers will be given further relief," Goyal said.
Power tariff in Delhi were today hiked by up to 7.5 per cent for domestic consumers, but power bills of 80 per cent consumers will come down as the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (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.
