Power tariff increased by 17 percent in Punjab
08-Sep-2009
News Source: Vinod Kumar Gupta
mynews.in

Chandigarh: The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) announced an average increase of 17 percent in the power tariffs for both domestic and industrial consumers in the state.

PSERC chairman Jai Singh Gill stated that the domestic tariff has been increased by 42 paise per unit and agriculture tariff has been increased bu 45 paise per unit. The tariff hike would be implemented from April 2009. The arrears of increased tariff from April to date shall be recovered in four equal installments along with electricity bills for coming months. The increase in tariff of domestic sector is 17.22 percent, agriculture sector 18.75 percent and industrial sector 9.5 percent.

In the domestic category, there is an increase of 42 paise and the new slab will be Rs.2.82 per unit for the first 100 units against the earlier Rs.2.40 per unit. For consumption of 100 to 200 units existing tariff of Rs.3.91per unit has been revised to Rs. 4.28 per unit. For consumption above 300 units the tariff would be Rs. 4.52 per unit against earlier tariff of Rs. 4.19 per unit

In agriculture sector the new tariffs will be Rs.2.85 per unit with 45-tariff paise increase from the previous tariff of 2.40 per unit. In the industrial sector, there is an increase of 38 paise per unit. Small industrial units tariff is Rs. 3,82 per unit while other industrial units the tariff is Rs.4.33 per unit

The subsidy amount being given by state Government to PSEB in lieu of free power to agriculture sector and SC /ST families has been increased from Rs. 2600 crore to Rs. 3100 cores.

There are 66 lakh consumers in the state, which includes 46 domestic consumers, and 1.1 lakh industrial consumers.

Punjab State Electricity Board has presented to PSERC its Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for the year 2009-10 to the tune of Rs.17227 crores, which has been reduced to12538 crores by the commission. . The major components of ARR is projected power purchase of Rs. 7265 crores , employees cost Rs. 3455 crores , fuel cost Rs. 3047 crores and interest payment of Rs. 1586 crores. PSEB has anticipated revenue gap of Rs. 4341 crores but commission has only allowed Rs. 619.04 crores. The overall revenue gap estimated by board was to the tune of Rs. 8546 crores.