Expected to provide Rs 354.82 crore relief to as many as 69 lakh domestic power consumers, Punjab power regulator on Monday announced 25-50 paise per unit reduction in the electricity rates.
Announcing the new tariff order for 2020-21 on Monday, to be applicable from June 1, 2020, till March 31, 2021, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) maintained status quo on the power rates for the industrial sector by neither increasing nor reducing the power tariff for the small traders or the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs).
“No increase in tariff for small shopkeepers (non residential supply consumers having load up to seven kW). No increase in the fixed part of the tariff for small, medium and large industrial consumers,” read the order.
At the same time, the industry has also been allowed to operate at night on special night tariff with 50 percent fixed charges and energy charges at the rate of Rs 4.83 per KVaH for large and medium industrial consumers using electricity exclusively during night hours from 10 pm to 6 am, and to extend it to small power (SP) industrial category consumers.
Continuing with its policy of encouraging the industry in promoting the productive use of surplus power by offering low energy rate of Rs 4.83/kVAh for consumption of power exceeding the threshold limit.
The decision is expected to help the small units overcome some of the economic losses suffered due to the lockdown.
In addition, the Commission has also accepted the suggestion made by industrial consumers that consumer availing supply at higher voltages should not be treated at par with the consumers getting supply at lower voltages. Accordingly, “voltage rebate” has been excluded from the ambit of capping of energy charges.
The tariff for the farm sector (Agriculture pumpset) has been raised from Rs 5.28 per kWh to Rs 5.57 per kWh against the power utility PSPCL’s proposal of Rs 6.95 per kWh. “With this, the cross-subsidy of AP category has been reduced from (-) 17.82 percent to (-) 14.41 percent,” added the order.
To simplify the billing, the Commission has decided to accept the PSPCL’s proposal to merge the consumption slabs of 301-500 units and above 500 units for the DS sub categories for consumers above 2kW also.
The regulator determined the Aggregate Revenue Requirement of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) at Rs 31,100.62 crore against a demand for Rs 41,720.97 crore. With expected revenue at the existing tariff being Rs 30,875.79 crore, the consolidated gap (deficit) worked out to be Rs 224.83 crore, which would be recovered in the remaining 10 months of the current financial year.
The regulator noted that the main reason for the revenue gap was the reduction in projected sales due to the lockdown imposed by the Central and State Governments to prevent spread of coronavirus pandemic.
This has resulted in “disproportional decrease in revenue as compared to the cost of power purchase while all fixed cost components of the Discom such as fixed cost or capacity charges payable to power generators, transmission charges, operation and maintenance expenses, depreciation, interest on loans, among others, remain the same,” it added.
