Regulator hears complaints over electricity tariff on Tuesday

CHANDIGARH: The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) will hold a public hearing session on Tuesday to determine power tariff for the next financial year.

UT superintending engineer (electricity) MP Singh said the session will be held at Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10. In a major relief to city residents, the UT electricity department has not proposed any hike in power tariff for the 2019-20 fiscal.

Recently, the UT electricity department, in a petition to the power regulator, submitted that there will be a surplus of Rs 18.65 crore with the department for the period between 2017-18 and 2019-20, so the department was not going to propose any hike in charges.

Last time, JERC had marginally increased rates in domestic and commercial categories, but had reduced the tariff in industrial category. In the domestic category, the rates were increased from Rs 2.55/unit to Rs 2.75/unit in the slab of 0-150 units. There was no change in the Rs 4.8 rate in the slab of 151-400 units. In the slab of more than 400 units, the rate was increased from Rs 5 to Rs 5.2 per unit.

On similar lines, there was only a small increase in the tariff for commercial consumers last time. In the category, there was no change in the per-unit rate of Rs 5 in the slab between 0-150 units, while the rate for the 151-400 unit slab was increased from Rs 5.2 to Rs 5.3 per unit. In the above 400-unit slab, rates were increased from Rs 5.45 to Rs 5.60 per unit.

In its latest petition, the department had stated that it had started a drive against people who had not cleared pending bills for improving its finances. The department submitted that it had issued notices to the defaulters and even disconnected electricity connections of some. In September, the commission had allowed the department to charge powerpayment surcharge of 24% per annum on defaulters.

As per latest data with the UT electricity department, 270 defaulters in the city owe Rs 10 crore to the department. In the past, the department has also not been paid for electricity bills by departments of neighbouring Punjab and Haryana. A source said resident could approach the commission to even oppose the present rates.