Nine years after the state hiked power charges in 2003, only
to roll them back 15 months later, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory
Commission on Friday gave the go-ahead for a 37% hike in power tariff across
all segments, effective from April 1.
The tariff hike is expected to help the TNEB, which is in the red, break even
by mopping up additional revenue of 7,874 crore in 2012-13. Even as the
commission announced the hike, good tidings wafted in for the TNEB on the
energy generation front too. For the first time in more than two months, its
generation crossed 9,000MW on Friday, powered by an additional 1,644MW from
wind power.
The cost of electricity has been increased from 65 paise per unit to Rs 1.10
for domestic consumers who use up to 100 units. The hike is highest – from 1.8
to 5.75 per unit – for domestic connections that use more than 500 units every
two months.
The commission has abolished the concept of minimum monthly charges and
introduced a monthly fixed charge, ranging from 10 to 20 for domestic
connections.
Despite the hike, rates in Tamil Nadu are the second lowest after Gujarat.
While most states revise charges annually, successive governments refused to do
the same and pushed TNEB into a debt trap.
Source: TNN
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