In a major jolt, Punjab's power regulator on Wednesday virtually left the residents shocked by its decision to hike power tariff by more than nine per cent.
The decision by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), announced this afternoon, will burden the consumers by a whopping Rs 1,782.50 crore.
The industrial sector will bear the major brunt with 12.83 per cent increase for small, medium and large supply industries, while the farm sector has virtually been spared with a meagre rise of 1.67 per cent - the only sector left out of the hike.
The average tariff hike of 9.06 per cent is the third highest increase in the last five years.
Earlier, the Commission made highest hike in tariff by 12.42 per cent in 2009-10, and 12.08 per cent the previous year, followed by 7.58 per cent in 2010-11.
"An average increase of 9.06 per cent in power tariff has been made for 2013-14 which will be effective from April 1, 2013, till March 31, 2014," PSERC chairperson Romila Dubey said.
The electrifying hike in the tariff has now placed Punjab among the leading states having highest rates of electricity.
Though the decision is expected to burn holes in the already pilfered pockets of the consumers, the PSERC described it as a step in the right direction to control the losses.
"The total amount arrived at after making adjustment on account of non-tariff income and revenue from tariff at existing level, the consolidated revenue gap determined by the Commission for financial year 2013-14 is Rs 1782.50 crore. And to meet this gap, 9.06 per cent is required across the board.
The combined average cost of supply for the year 2013-14 works out to 577.75 paise per unit, as compared to previous year's figure of 538.66 paise per unit," added Dubey.
The electricity tariff on the agriculture pumpset has been increased to 425 paise per kilowatt hour, from 418 paise per kWh.
However, Punjab Government is committed to bear the entire financial burden on account of "free" power supply to the farmers — forming a major part of the vote bank.
Explaining the paltry raise in power tariff for farm sector, Dubey said: "As power supply to agriculture sector is erratic, the farmers are getting supply during odd hours, instead of day time.
Therefore, there is a provision that we can have a differential tariff for this category." The reasonably low hike in power tariff for agriculture sector entails that subsidy burden on the "cash-strapped" state exchequer would be less in the current fiscal, that worked out at Rs 4,778.13 crore for 2013-14.
In addition, state government also pay power subsidy for supplying free power up to 200 units per month to SC domestic consumers and non-SC BPl domestic consumers — adding upto Rs 829.29 crore.
On the transmission losses, Dubey said that the state have come down from 19 to 18 per cent in 2012-13, and now further down to 17 per cent.
Besides, the Commission has also approved a capital investment plan of Rs 900 crore for PSTCl and Rs 1450 crore for PSPCl to strengthen its infrastructure to further improve quality of service to the consumers of the State.