Govt won’t allow power tariff hike, says Jain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 11

In view of the private power discoms pressing for a revision in electricity tariff, Power Minister Satyendar Jain declared in the House on Friday that the government will not let any increase in power tariff this year.

Jain alleged that the BJP was trying to effect a tariff hike through the back door.

The minister told the House the government has done its calculation and submitted it to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission while asserting it will be ensured that there is no tariff hike even this year.

In Delhi, the electricity rates have remained unchanged over the last two years with the last increase of 5 per cent being in 2014.

The DERC is understood to have begun the annual exercise for revising the tariff and one round of discussion on the demands submitted by the discoms - BSES and TPDDL (Tata Power) is already over.

The aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) of the power companies have been put at— BSES Rajdhani - Rs 9,052 crore, BSES Yamuna - Rs 4,892 crore and Tata Power - Rs 7,680 crore.

However, discoms state that the figures should be more as the DERC has used their demands made last year to arrive at the ARRs— something which was also pointed out by Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta.

Gupta wanted to know the status of the Business Plan Regulations, pending which discoms will not able to submit their fresh petitions.

Jain also claimed that power tariff in the city will reduce significantly if power purchase agreements with power producers signed by the previous government are cancelled.