In a good news for the people of Uttarakhand, charges for consuming electricity would be reduced from April 1 and with this close to half of the population of the State would thus pay less.
The rates under various categories like domestic, commercial and industrial have been decreased by an average of 1.37 per cent.
While declaring the new rate (tariff) of electricity on Wednesday, Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) chairman Subhash Kumar said that UPCL had requested for a tariff hike of about 16.57 per cent and the overall tariff hike (considering the hike proposed by other utilities UJVNL, PTCUL and SLDC) by 21.15 per cent. “After analysing all the relevant aspects in the UPCL proposals, UERC has finally decided to reduce the electricity rate by 1.32 per cent,” Kumar said.
Notably, the number of BPL consumers in the State is 3.15 lakh while that of the domestic consumers is 18.5 lakh and commercial consumers is 1.25 lakh. Besides, 24000 farmers are also the consumers in the State. All of the people under these categories would benefit from the changed tariff structure with varying degrees.
Kumar announced that there would be no change in tariff for BPL consumers. Further, consumption level for BPL category has been increased from the current level of 30 kWh per month to 60 kWh per month, he added. “Currently, a BPL consumer consuming 60 units pays Rs198/month. Now he would pay Rs115/month,” Kumar said.
“In existing applicability conditions, if any BPL consumer’s monthly consumption exceeds 30 units he is billed as per the normal domestic consumer. Domestic consumers consuming 100 units are currently paying average tariff of Rs3.20/kWh and the tariff would remain the same. Hence, there is no change in tariff for around 50 per cent of domestic consumers. Besides, slabs for levying Fixed Charges for Domestic Category have been reduced from 6 slabs to 4 slabs,” he said.
“There would be no change in tariff for Private Tube Wells Category. Minimum Consumption Guarantee (MCG) across all the categories has been abolished. Continuous Supply Surcharge for industries opting continuous power has been reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. Time of Day (TOD) incentive for consumption during off-peak hours has been increased from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of energy charge.
The off-peak hour rate of power has been made cheaper as compared to the rate during the peak hours,” he added.