Karnataka hikes power tariff by 34.16 paise/unit

The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), on Wednesday, increased the power tariff in the State by an average of 34.16 paise/ unit.

This roughly works out to a hike of about 7.5% as against 51 paise hike sought by the Escoms (Electricity supply companies). The new tariff will come into effect from December 1.

For the first time, each of the five electricity supplying companies in the State will have slightly different tariffs instead of the present system of uniform tariff as the KERC issued a differential tariff order. The hike varies for each category of consumers.

Power consumers in BESCOM (Better customer care) area including Bangalore will have to pay an additional 40.11 paise/ unit on an average, while the consumers of other Escoms will have to bear with an average increase ranging from 24.87 to 26.57 paise/ unit.

The good news for the domestic consumers in all the Escoms is that there is no increase in tariff for the first 100 units consumed by them.

They have to pay an additional 30 paise/ unit for the consumption from 101 to 200 units, and additional 40 paise from 200 to 300 units, 50 paise from 300 to 400 units and 120 paise for the consumption above 400 units.

Sources said this has been done with a twin objective of ensuring that poor and lower middle class families are not affected and also to discourage indiscriminate use of power by upper middle class and rich segments.

The KERC has continued its previous exercise of classifying consumers as three categories of those in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, urban local bodies and village panchayat areas.

The increase for those in ULBs and VPs are lesser than those in BBMP area. The Irrigation Pump Sets and Bhagya Jyothi/Lutir Jyothi consumers have been spared from hike.

Similarly, the tariff has been increased by 15 to 55 paise / unit for Low Tension (LT) commercial categories in BBMP.

The tariff for LT industries has not been changed for the first 500 units, while they have to pay an additional 35 paise for the consumption between 501 and 1000 units and 30 paise for consumption above 1000 units.

There is an increase of 35 paise and 30 paise / unit for the HT and LT water supply respectively while the street light tariff has gone up by 5 paise/ unit.

There is steep increase of 75 paise to one rupee/ unit for temporary supply.

The increase in tariff for the second slab of consumption among HT industries has been kept lower than that of the first slab to promote power consumption by these high-paying categories.

But the industries have cold shouldered this by pointing out that they are already facing load shedding due to power shortage.

The tariff for HT industries has been increased by 50 paise/ unit for the consumption upto one lakh Kilowatt hours while they have to pay an additional 30 paise for the consumption beyond one lakh KWHs.

The HT commercial categories such as shopping malls will have to bear with a steep hike of 75 to 80 paise/ unit while the HT residential apartments will have to pay 70 paise more for every unit.

Taken from Business Line