With the filing of the detailed Annual Revenue requirement (ARR) by the UP Power corporation limited (UPPCl the power regulator UP State Electricity Regulatory Commission has begun the exercise of revising the power tariff for 2016-17. The revised tariff for the next financial year 2016-17 is expected to be announced within next 120 days or by the end of July.
Being the election year, the UPPCl in its ARR has spared the domestic power consumers from any further hike in tariff. It has demanded hike in power tariff from 8-10 percent for all other categories of consumers. During the present Samajwadi party regime power tariff for all categories of power consumers has been hiked four times. With the publication of the ARR in news papers, the power regulator will invite claims and objections from all the stake holders and hold a public hearing after 15 days. The power regulator will hold the hearing in different parts of the state where the representatives of the trade, commercial establishments and farmers will file their objections against the proposed hike in power tariff.
The power regulator has asked the UPPCl to furnish the details of the power procured from different sources in last five years, recovery of electricity charges from different categories of consumers since 2007-08 and subsidy it received from the state government. As per the provisions of the India Electricity Act 2003, the power regulator is required to issue the revised tariff order within 120 days.
As per the ARR, the UPPCl has projected the total expenditure of Rs 58,125 crore and total revenue receipt of Rs 49,431 crore—thus leaving a revenue gap of Rs 8,694 crore. The five subsidiaries of the UPPCl— the five power distribution companies will spend Rs 49,848 crore on purchasing power from different sources. The five discoms will purchase over 1.25,627 million units and will sell 94,599 million units –thus the UPPCl will get not a penny for as much as 31,028 million it will sell, will be lost on account of transmission and distribution losses.
The hike in tariff is likely to fetch additional revenue of Rs 1,400-1,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore are expected to be provided by the state government as subsidy for the loss incurred by the power utility in supply power to the rural sector.
The UPPCl demand for more power in 2016-17 falls in line with the state governments promise to increase power supply in rural areas to 16 hours , 22 hours to district and divisional headquarters and 24 hours to KAVAl towns by October next. The hike in power purchase for the UPPCl has gone up by over Rs 5,000 crore for 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16.
A senior official of the UPPCl said in next financial years the aggregate technical and commercial losses which are in the range of 50-70 percent in some districts, will be brought down to 27 percent to cut financial losses. `` If we can cut the line losses the it will help us to increase power supply for all the areas and the need for purchasing costly power from the power exchange may not arise’’, said the official.