Electricity has become costlier in Jharkhand after four years with the effect of June 1. For general consumers, an increase of up to 5 paise per unit has been made. Along with this, the fixed charge has been increased by Rs 25 for urban consumers and Rs 30 for rural consumers.
On the other hand, electricity for high tension special service for furnace industries, iron smelting industries has been made cheaper by 35 paise. The electricity rates of industries area have been increased. High and low tension industries supply electricity rate has been increased by 15 paise. Railway and military service electricity has become expensive. The commission has given relief to the consumers of irrigation and agriculture work. There was no increase in it. But the fixed charge has been increased from Rs 20 to Rs 40.
The new electricity tariff 2021-22 was announced by Jharkhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) Chairman, Justice Amitabh Kumar Gupta, Member Technical, Atul Kumar and Member Law, Mahendra Prasad during a press conference held on Thursday. He told that JBVNL had proposed a hike of up to 17 per cent, but we have approved the hike up to six and a half per cent after listening to the views and opinions of both JBVNL and the consumers. This increase will be considered effective from June 1, 2023 in the entire State.
A decision of the commission in the interest of consumers has been taken such as if the consumer makes the payment within 5 days of the bill date, the consumer will get an instant discount of 2 per cent on the payment of the bill and 1 per cent discount will be given on the amount paid within the due date of the entire amount of the bill made through online or any digital mode, subject to a maximum limit of Rs.250.
Load factor rebate will be given to all consumers. Whose load factor will be more than 65 per cent. Whose maximum limit will be 15 per cent and voltage rebate will be applicable only on energy charges. If the user JSERC, the voltage rebate will be up to 3 per cent at 33 KV, up to 5 per cent at 132 KV.
The fixed charge collection hours will be linked to the supply number. At least 23 hours power supply time for HT consumers and 21 hours for LT consumers was kept. Full security money deposited will be refunded within one month of switching to prepaid metering and installation of prepaid meter. The commission has retained the rebate of 1 per cent every month. The maximum limit of which will be up to 3 per cent of the billing amount if the bill is not given for 2 consecutive months.
The commission said in its report that it is multi-tariff. That is, this increase has been done including the remaining financial years 2022-23, 2023-24. For the rest of the financial year, the Commission will approve the financial true-up of JBVNL only. The Commission will take a further decision on the new tariff plan to be filed by JBVNL for the financial year 24-25 in November this year. It may be known that the tariff of the financial year 2019-20 is currently applicable in the state. In 2020-21, the commission did not increase the electricity rate in view of the corona infection. While after this the action could not be taken in three financial years due to the commission being defunct.
