With Government giving its assent to the proposals of Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) the power tariff in urban areas has been increased by 17 per cent from Sunday driving a hole in consumers’ pockets.
The hike came after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav assured consumers to extend some rebate. The new tariff plan was announced by UPSERC on June 18.
Tariff increase for industries, commercial and agricultural connections, on the other hand, are 5.4 per cent, 5.16 per cent and 11.97 per cent respectively. The average hike is of 5.47 per cent.
This would be the fourth power tariff hike during adav's regime since 2012 and the increase is almost 60 per cent in the past three years. The domestic consumer who paid Rs 3.80 per unit in 2012, will now have to pay Rs 6.20 per unit.
UPSERC Chairman Desh Deepak Verma said that the Commission was forced to take this decision because of the performance of the various Discoms that centered around line loss, increase in number of consumers and rationalisation of metering.
"Efforts have been made to ensure that the effective tariff for the consumers having lower consumption will be lesser as compared to the consumers consuming more power. This will discourage the consumers to use more electricity and will continue in power conserving," Verma said here on Sunday.
Verma said consumer will now have to pay Rs 15 per kw more as fixed charge. Earlier it was Rs 75 which now will be Rs 90 per kw. The surcharge has been increased by 1.9 per cent. The total surcharge would be 4.28 per cent of the total bill. But for the residents of Kanpur, this hike would be 4.13 per cent.
In an attempt to bring UPPCl out of red, the Commission has decided to abolish rebate given to power employees. The rebate was up to 50 per cent and in some cases the rebate was fixed..
Verma claimed that the hike proposed by the Commission this time was less than the last time. last time, the Commission has proposed a hike of almost 9 per cent, he said and added that if industry operates at night it will get 15 per cent rebate on total bill.
UP Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad has criticised the move of the government to hike the power tariff without giving any opportunity to them to place their stand.
"The Chief Minister had assured to set up a committee to look into the matter but nothing was done and the tariff was hiked. Our petition opposing the hike was still pending,'' stated Parishad chairman Awadhesh Kumar here.