The bimonthly bills of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) issued this month came as a shocker to domestic tariff consumers. Even in cases where the unit consumption is somewhat on a par with that of the previous billing period, consumers found a big difference in the bill amount this time.
KSEB officials, when contacted, said the difference was because of the revised tariff rates coming into effect.
For a consumer consuming up to 240 units during the two-month period, there would not be much of a difference from the previous bill. If the previous bill amount for 240 units’ consumption was Rs.488, it would be Rs.540 now, a difference of Rs.52.
But when the consumption touched 300 units during the two-month period, the big difference in amount came into play.
For 300 units
The charge for 300 units in the previous bill would have been Rs.680, but now it would be a whopping Rs.896, a difference of Rs.216.
When consumption touched 400 units, the latest bill would show an amount of Rs.1,424, compared to the Rs.1,071 previously, a difference of Rs.353. The difference between the two bills would touch Rs.550 when unit consumption touched 500 units. For the same amount of consumption, the previous bill would have been Rs.1,534 and the present bill, Rs.2,084.
When consumption touched 600 units for the domestic-category consumer, the latest bill would show an amount of Rs.2,744, compared to the Rs.1,997 previously — a difference of Rs.747.
The difference between the two bills would jump to Rs.999 when consumption touched 700 units. It would have been Rs.2,570 in the last bill, whereas the latest bill would show an amount of Rs.3,569.
KSEB officials said that in spite of load-shedding coming into effect, power consumption in the domestic category had not only failed to come down but seen to be going up. Heavy use of induction cookers because of the LPG shortage and a climb in the number of households that had installed inverters were seen to be the cause of increased power consumption in domestic sector.
While load shedding had brought some fall in the consumption during the peak hours, per-day overall consumption had only increased and it showed that the measure had not brought much relief to the KSEB. The officials said that the thrust for the domestic sector consumers should be to bring down consumption.
For instance, if a domestic-category consumer could bring down the two-month consumption from 700 units to 500 units, which could be easily done, the bill amount would register a fall from Rs.3,569 to Rs.2,084 and make a difference of Rs.1,485, they explained.
