Power tariff up by 7%

Tribune News Service

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Dehradun, April 11

The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission today approved a power tariff hike of around 7.1 per cent for 2015-16.

Announcing this at a press conference here today, Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman Subash Kumar announced approval of overall 7.1 per cent hike in power tariff for 2015-16. Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) had on the other hand claimed an overall 26.24 per cent power tariff hike to meet the power purchase costs and other expenses.

For domestic consumers, the commission has increased the rates by 10 paisa per unit for the first 100 units, 20 paise hike for 101-200 units, 45 paise hike for 201-300 units. Over 301 units, a 50 paise hike per unit has been announced.

Moreover, as a relief to small domestic consumers, the fixed charge for consumers consuming up to 100 units have been kept unchanged. The commission has not specified any tariff for unmetered consumers as UPCL has said that it would meter all consumers by June 30.

For the high tension (HT) industrial power consumers, the commission has reduced the high tension industrial slabs from 3 to 2 slabs. The first slab will cover HT industrial consumers with load factor up to 40 per cent and the second shall cover the HT industrial consumers with load factor above 40 per cent.

The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission has further asked UPCL to submit a concrete action plan for reduction in defective meters, improvement of its collection system and recovery of arrears and conduct of energy audit.