Power tariff in Himachal Pradesh will go up 13 percent but domestic and agricultural consumers will have to pay more as the government has committed to raising the power subsidy from Rs 165 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 280 crore in 2012-13.

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission in its Electricity Retail Supply Tariff Order for 2012-13, issued today, said the commercial tariff for load upto 20 KW remains unchanged but tariff for load between 21 and 100 KW is up from Rs 3.95 to Rs 4.20 per unit while for load above 100 KW, the tariff would be Rs 4.10 per unit instead of Rs 3.75 per unit at present.

The tariff for government water and irrigation pumping has been raised by 50 per unit in all slabs while charges for street light have been increased from Rs 4 to Rs 4.60 per unit. The tariff for bulk supply and industry has been hiked by 40-50 paise per unit for various categories as per power load and nature of the unit.

The commission has approved the revenue requirement of Rs 4,156 crore for 2012-13 and fully allowed the deficit of Rs 733 crore. Of this, Rs 412 crore would be recovered by tariff increase of about 13 percent this year. More than 95 percent commercial consumers, (2.26 lakh out of 2.30 lakh) having small business, shops, hotels, private offices, banks etc are also unaffected.

The commission also said the tariff for other categories for the first 40 units has been raised from Rs 2.35 per unit to Rs 2.85 per unit. Further, the tariff for up to 125 units has been raised from Rs 2.50 per unit to Rs 3 per unit. For 16-250 units, the tariff fixed by commission has ben increased from Rs 3.45 per unit to Rs 3.90 per unit.