UERC hikes up electricity rates in Uttarakhand by upto 7%
Announcing this at a press conference yesterday, Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman Subash Kumar announced approval of overall 7.1 per cent hike in power tariff for 2015-16. Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) had on the other hand claimed an overall 26.24 per cent power tariff hike to meet the power purchase costs and other expenses.
Slabs for Domestic Users
For domestic consumers, the commission has increased the rates by 10 paisa per unit for the first 100 units, 20 paise hike for 101-200 units, 45 paise hike for 201-300 units. Over 301 units, a 50 paise hike per unit has been announced.
Moreover, as a relief to small domestic consumers, the fixed charge for consumers consuming up to 100 units have been kept unchanged. The commission has not specified any tariff for unmetered consumers as UPCL has said that it would meter all consumers by June 30.
Slabs for Commercial Users
For the high tension (HT) industrial power consumers, the commission has reduced the high tension industrial slabs from 3 to 2 slabs. The first slab will cover HT industrial consumers with load factor up to 40 per cent and the second shall cover the HT industrial consumers with load factor above 40 per cent.
A new sub category for independent advertisement hoardings created
New sub-category has been created in RTS for independent advertisement hoardings. Agriculture allied service such as Nurseries, Polyhouses, not involved in any kind of processing of farm produce, except for storage and preservation, has been shifted to a new category under RTS-4 as RTS 4A with tariff at around 50 per cent of average cost of supply. The UERC has acknowledged the distinction between the quality of supply of PWW connections and public lamps in rural and urban areas.
The Commission has furthermore specified differential fixed charges for rural and urban consumers of PWW and public lamps. However, the energy charges have been kept same. Non-continuous processing industry can now opt for continuous supply of power by paying surcharge of 15 per cent of energy charge.
