The Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC) has raised the average power tariffs for various consumer segments by as much as 14.10 per cent in the State. However, the State Government, at the same time, also approved subsidy of Rs450 crore to keep the power tariff low, an official statement informed on Monday.
The fresh tariff will be effective from June 1, 2015. Domestic tariff has been hiked by 11 per cent while non-domestic tariff has been hiked by 7 per cent. Tariff for high pressure consumers has also been raised by 20 per cent. The most unprecedented tariff hike was for agriculture pumps raised by 33 per cent.
Justifying the hike, officials said that power consumption expenditure of 97 per cent of the farmers in Chhattisgarh is borne by the State Government. The annual consumption of 3 Horse Power (HP) pump in a year is 6,000 units and 5 HP pump is 7,500 units whose expenses are borne by the State government, they informed.
According to the officials, there was need for increasing power tariff in agriculture pumps because for any section of consumers, the power tariff for average cost of supply should not be less than 80 per cent. Despite the hike, the average tariff cost of power supply for farmers had been kept at 67 per cent.