Hike in power tariff: Former finance minister seeks review of HERC tariff order, files petition
During a briefing at Haryana Congress office on Monday, Singh said that there were widespread public protests against the new tariff regime across the state. Raising concerns over the pricing mechanism adopted by the power utilities, the former minister said that the power utilities were purchasing 7,964.28 crore units of power at a cost of ₹ 3.12 per unit. But the same is being sold to consumers at an average rate of ₹ 7.29 per unit,' he said.
Singh also pointed out that out of the total power purchased, only 6,916 crore units were reaching consumers, implying that the transmission and distribution losses exceeded 22%.
Referring to the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) undertaken by the Haryana government in September 2015, which covered ₹ 34,000 crore of liabilities of the power utilities, he said that post-UDAY, the power distribution companies reported a profit of ₹ 800 crore for the first time in March 2021. 'However, instead of reducing the tariffs, the burden on consumers has been increased,' he said.
The Congress leader said domestic consumers now faced fixed charges ranging between ₹ 50 to ₹ 75 per kW. Additionally, per unit charges had been raised by 25% to 50%.
This is the first time that fixed charges have been introduced for domestic consumers. Besides the telescopic slab system of consumption of power had been given a go by.
Commercial consumers had been adversely affected by the merger of their category with LT and HT supply, raising fixed charges from ₹ 165 to ₹ 290 per kVA, and per unit charges from ₹ 6.65 to ₹ 6.95.
He also criticised the continuation of a 47 paise per unit fuel surcharge adjustment that was supposed to end in June 2024.
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