BENGALURU: Get ready to spend more on electricity bills. Just after the assembly elections, the
Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (
KERC) is set to announce tariff hike on Monday, with retrospective effect.
Usually, the hike is announced in the last week of March every year and the hike comes to effect from April
1. But as the poll code of conduct was in place, the commission had to wait till the elections were over.
For citizens, there will be no respite as the hike will have retrospective effect. This means the electricity bill that will be generated after May 14 will include the tariff hike, calculated from April.
This year, the Escoms had proposed a hike between 83 paise and Rs 1.62 per unit; Bescom sought a hike of 83 paise per unit. In 2017-18, the commission effected a steep hike of 48 paise per unit, as against the proposal of Rs 1.48 (the average of all Escoms).
It was the highest tariff hike passed on to
consumers in the previous five financial years and slammed by consumers. Even during the public hearing in February, consumers complained of poor quality of power supply.
