New power tariff order delayed
Sarbjit Dhaliwal/TNS

Chandigarh, April 19
The financially starved Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), caught in a debt trap owing to accumulated losses, will have to wait for some more weeks for the new tariff order (2012-13). If one is to go by rules and regulations, the new tariff order should have been implemented on April 1. The state government is all set to hold elections to 29 notified area committees (NACs) and four Municipal Corporations in Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana in the second week of June. It would not want revision of the power tariff before that.

Sources said the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), a constitutional body mandated to determine the new tariff, has done its job. However, it is waiting for the official response. Sources in the commission said that the government was yet to give its comments on the annual revenue requirement (ARR) petition filed by the PSPCL about four months ago for revising power tariff for the current fiscal year.

Without the government’s comments, the new tariff order cannot be finalised. In its petition, the PSPCL had projected a revenue gap of Rs 8,984 crore. This can be bridged by increasing the tariff by 55 per cent per unit for all categories of consumers.

The government would have to express its viewpoint on the projected revenue gap and the continuing subsidy to the farm sector.

However, the power department feels the PSPCL would be able to overcome the fiscal crisis with a 20 per cent increase in the tariff (from Rs 4.65 per unit to Rs 5.68 per unit). This would result in additional revenue of about Rs 3,000 crore per annum.