New power tariff in Delhi will be announced in the last week of July. Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) Chairman PD Sudhakar said the revised tariff petitions of the distribution companies and submissions received from various quarters in the public hearing are being assessed and nearing completion.
The power regulatory body had earlier said the new tariffs would be announced by June-end. However, officials said the delay was on account of analysis and verification of the petitions. “Delhiites can expect the revised power tariffs within 10 to 15 days. The process is taking time as a lot of analysis and verifications are being carried out. We have to deeply check the power purchase costs quoted by different organisations. After that we need to thoroughly go through all the suggestions, objections and recommendations cited during the public hearing. The process is quite long and time consuming and no mistakes can be made,” Sudhakar said.
In May, the DERC chairman had indicated that the existing tariff might be increased in order to reduce the financial deficit of over `7,000 crore.
He had also ruled out the possibility of reducing power tariff, as demanded by the BJP, saying it was practically impossible and that the private discoms had demanded an average increase of 15 per cent in the power tariff.
“Private stakeholders had given us a report in which they had projected an accumulated deficit of over Rs 19,500 crore. And, if after analysis, this comes out to be true then a hike in power tariff is inevitable,” he said. However, as per the DERC, the accumulated deficit was just over `7,000 crore till March 11 this year.