Haryana mulls partial power hike rollback, to stagger arrear payment

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

Power consumers in Haryana, hit by the hiked tariff effected from April 1, 2015, and the collective recovery of its arrears for the last four months in the bills received in September, can hope for some relief. The Haryana Government is mulling partial rollback of the hike, besides staggering the payment of arrears over a few months.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today chaired a meeting of the Power Department and directed the officials to work out the modalities, hinting at a partial rollback and staggered payment. 

Holding the power portfolio, Khattar said the distribution companies were suffering losses to the tune of Rs 29,000 crore. “There is overloading in the shape of interest to the tune of Rs 3,200 crore, meaning thereby that a consumer is already having to pay nearly Re 1 per unit to meet this interest. However, we realise the consumer is burdened with the hike effected after the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (HERC) announcement and the corresponding arrears which have to be recovered. We are looking at staggering this over a few months so that the consumer is not overly burdened,” he said.

Sources in the Power Department said various options were being worked out. The increase in power tariff by 8.5 per cent, announced on May 7 and effected from April 1 this year, and the recovery of its arrears had generated a huge furore in the public, forcing the government to take remedial steps. 

The Opposition, including the Indian National Lok Dal and the Congress, had organised statewide protests and sit-ins to lodge their protest. Besides increased bills, the consumers felt burdened due to collective recovery of arrears for four-five months in one go by the distribution companies.