Delhiites must brace for another hike in power tariff as the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is likely to announce revised rates in the Capital by June end. The power regulator has issued public notice seeking comments and suggestions on the petitions submitted by the three discoms. While feedback from the public will be taken till May 26, public hearing is slate to begin from mid-June.
“Revised tariffs can be expected towards the end of June. A public notice inviting suggestions and objections has been issued on April 25. This apart, we had asked the discoms to issue the same notices too. After a month we will analyse all the comments and hold public hearings for a couple of days,” said PD Sudhakar, chairman, DERC. The comments and suggestions can be submitted personally or by post to the commission and can also be e-mailed to the secretary of DERC at secyderc@nic.in.
Power experts have said that a hike in power tariffs is imminent this year too as the DERC plans to implement its proposed recovery roadmap for repayment of revenue gap to the tune of `8,000 crore. To add to this, consumers in the national Capital have to shell out more while paying their power bills in the coming days as all subsidies will be discontinued from the coming month.
These deficits have been increasing year after year and till the financial year 2011-12, the provisional revenue gap approved by DERC is `5,206 crore for BRPl, `2,855 crore for BYPl and `3,371 crore for Tata Power which may or may not vary according to the findings of the ongoing CAG audit. To liquidise this revenue gap, DERC has announced eight annual instalments to cover the deficit, which according to industry sources might translate into a tariff hike every year.
On the other hand, the absence of a subsidy will affect almost 80 percent of the Capital’s 34.61 lakh power consumers who use between 200 and 400 units of electricity. For the middle class, which was paying `970 per month approximately for 400 units in the past three months will pay now have to pay about `1,940.
