Brace for power shocker

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

City residents may get another power shocker as the Electricity Department has proposed a 20 per cent hike in the electricity rates in a petition filed today with the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for financial year 2018-19.

Sources said besides the rates, a marginal increase had also been sought in the fixed charges for both domestic and commercial consumers.

The department has proposed the hike to recover the losses of around Rs 200 crore it has suffered in the current financial year. Though the JERC had denied the proposal for the hike in electricity rates in the current financial year, the loss of the department has increased since then.

An official said the JERC had agreed in the past to recover the losses from consumers in the next three to five years.

The sources said if the JERC accepts the proposal for the increase, then over 2 lakh consumers would have to pay 20 paisa to Rs 1 more per unit.

The increase is being proposed for all types of consumers. The JERC increased the tariff in 2016-17 after a gap of four years. The gap in the revenue and the expenditure increased as the JERC declined to increase the tariff from 2012 to 2016.

While the department has not been allowed to enhance the tariff, the department is levying FPCCA charges on consumers quarterly to recover the loss to some extent.

The sources said the department had also asked the JERC to simply FPCCA charges as consumers find it difficult to understand the same.