Laying to rest speculation over the possibility of a delay in revision of electricity tariff for the coming financial year, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has maintained that any revision will be applicable from April 1. However, there is no ruling out a delay in announcement of the revision.
This is because the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) submitted an amendment to its earlier petition only three days before the public hearing on February 20. Acting on consumers’ objection to this, the KERC allowed consumers time of 30 days to file objections.
“Bescom gave its new submission on March 24. We will need time to go through this. The announcement will happen either by the end of March or the first week of April. But [the revised tariffs] will be applicable from April 1,” KERC chairman M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda said. He said the code of conduct in place for the Nanjangud and Gundlupet bypolls is not applicable to the KERC and would not have affect tariff revision.
R.C. Chetan, director (finance), Bescom, said though the hike sought for the upcoming financial year is ₹1.48 a unit, the power utility filed an amended petition recently with three important proposals. Among these are the introduction of ‘intra-category subsidy’ for domestic consumers, wherein those consuming more than 200 units of power a month will have to pay more to cross-subsidise those consuming less. This is to save HT (high-tension) consumers from having to cross-subsidise domestic consumers. Another move aimed at retaining the high-paying HT consumers, an increasing number of whom have been leaving the grid, is to increase the fixed charges while reducing their energy charges.
“We filed the petition for a uniform tariff hike, as per the directions of KERC, before the December 31 deadline. But then we realised that we are burdening one class of consumers, whom we were losing. So, the management decided to file an amended petition, due to which it went beyond the schedule,” Dr. Chetan said.
