Pay more for power in Punjab
REAL SHOCKER: Tariff goes up by 10.2 pc for domestic consumers
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 23
Power bills of domestic consumers in Punjab are all set to shoot up with the state electricity regulatory panel announcing a steep tariff hike of 10.2 per cent today. The average hike for all categories is 7.5 per cent.

Domestic consumers, who use up to 100 units, will see their bills go up by 29 paise per unit. The ones using 100-300 units will have to shell out 24 paise more per unit and above 300 units it would cost 26 paise more a unit.

“Power tariff for the year 2010-11 has been increased by 7.5 per cent, across all categories,” Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) chairman Jai Singh Gill told reporters.

For farmers the hike will be 35 paise per unit. The new rates of power in farm sector would now stand at 320 paise per kwh. They would have to pay to power utility at a rate of Rs 50 per bhp (335 Watts) while the rest of cost (Rs 223 per bhp) would be borne by state government in the form of subsidy, as decided by the state government this year.

This has been worked out at Rs 2,702 crore. The cost of free power supply of 100 units per month to scheduled caste and backward castes families comes to Rs 320 crore and it will also be borne by the government.

The industrial sector, including small, medium, large and arc furnaces will face a six per cent increase in tariff. There will no changes in rates of peak load exemption charges as well as penalty for violation of peak load hour restrictions. All new small power industrial consumers will be provided with metering equipment capable of measuring monthly average power factor.

Gill disclosed that the state government will refund Rs 333 crore collected from domestic consumers from April 2009 to September 2009 on account of enhancement affected in the last tariff order in six equated installments. The government has promised to pay an equivalent amount in advance to the power utility. The government had taken a decision to partially subsidise this hike following pressure from the BJP.

The PSERC was forced to increase the tariff despite severely reducing the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) of Rs 16,393 crore to Rs 12,836 crore. The major axe has fallen on power purchase with the commission imposing a 26 per cent cut on it and approving only Rs 3,734 crore for the purpose against Rs 5,137 crore demanded by the Board. The commission has also affected a 15 per cent cut on employee cost by bringing it down from Rs 3,566 projected by the PSEB to Rs 2,989.

Meanwhile, when questioned whether the government would allow adjustment of subsidy against loan, the PSERC chairman said this was an issue, which was to be settled between the borrower and the lender. There has been criticism that the PSERC has been soft on the government by allowing paper adjustment of subsidy against loans taken earlier by the PSEB. The government adjusted Rs 1,140 crore in this manner this year, pushing the PSEB into a financial crisis.

Gill when questioned whether the government had framed a policy on allotment of new tubewell connections as directed by the PSERC last year, said the commission had pressed for the same but there was no confirmation from the government on the issue.

Shockwaves

Domestic: Hike in between 311 paisa per unit to 478 paisa per unit. Average hike: 10.28 per cent.

Industrial: From 414 paisa per unit (small scale) to 458 paisa per unit (large industry). Average hike: 6 per cent.

Agriculture: 320 paisa per kwh. Up by 12.28 per cent but government to foot a large part of the bill.