 "power, electricity")
The Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission on Thursday revised the power tariff for different categories of consumers with a projected revenue increase of nearly Rs 4,800 crore annually. The overall increase in power tariff is 11 per cent which will be applicable from January 1, the commission's chairperson Shreemat Pandey said.
The revised tariff will generate additional revenue of Rs 792 crore in the last two months (February and March) of the current fiscal year. Rajasthan energy minister B D Kalla informed that 57 per cent consumers will be unaffected with the increase in power tariff.
"There are a total of 133 lakh consumers and 76 lakh consumers, which is 57 per cent, will not be affected with the increase," Kalla said.
The minister said that losses and debt on power discoms increased due to financial mismanagement of the former BJP government. He said that the losses of power discoms were nearly Rs 90,000 crore and debt was nearly Rs 66,000 crore when the former government completed its tenure.
Kalla also said that the state government was making efforts to reduce transmission and distribution losses of the power companies. Along with the revision of power tariff, the commission has created a new category of electric vehicle charging station has also been created while industries were given rebate in electricity charges from 55 paise to 85 paise per unit, he said.
EV charging stations will be charged Rs 6 per unit.
Besides, he informed, the energy charges for metro rail under the traction load capacity was also reduced from Rs 7.50 per unit to Rs 5.70 per unit. Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur DISCOMs, three power distribution companies of the state, had filed petitions with the commission for approval of Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) and tariff for the current fiscal year in August last year.
The DISCOMs had proposed revision of tariff which would lead to additional revenue of Rs 5,175 crore but the commission has approved an increase of Rs 4,800 crore for a period of 12 months, he said.
The DISCOMs had projected a net deficit of Rs 7,142 crore for the current fiscal year. There is no increase in electricity charges and fixed charges for BPL and Astha card holders consuming up to 50 units per month.
Also, there is no increase in electricity charges for the consumers of small domestic category, small non domestic category and industry category. The increase in tariff is for general domestic category, domestic category, non domestic category and agriculture category.
The increase in power tariff for farmers in agriculture category will be borne by the state government and the farmers will not be impacted with the power tariff revision, the minister said.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot had earlier this year announced that the state government will bear increase in power tariff for farmers. The power tariff was last revised in September 2016.
