BERC may issue power tariff order next week

PATNA: Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) is likely to issue its annual power tariff order for the 2018-19 fiscal for the two power distribution companies (discoms) in the state next week. The power tariff order will affect nearly 1.41 crore power consumers of different categories in the state.

The two discoms — North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) — had submitted their tariff petitions for the next fiscal to the BERC in November last. The discoms have proposed a hike of 4-6% in the annual power tariff across different categories of consumers.

Senior officials said the per unit hike in power tariff for different categories of power consumers, proposed by the discoms, is in the range of 10 to 30 paise without subsidy. Besides, the discoms have proposed to increase the fixed monthly charges from Rs 40 to Rs 50 for urban domestic consumers. Several new sub categories, including ‘Har Ghar Nal’ by merging few existing sub-categories has also been proposed.

With regard to charges as per usage, the discoms have proposed Rs 6.45 per unit against existing tariff rate of Rs 6.15 per unit (without government subsidy) for first 100 units and Rs 7.20 per unit against current 6.95 per unit for a slab of 101-200 units for the urban domestic consumers.

Similarly, the discoms have proposed Rs 7.90 for the slab of 201-300 units against existing rate of Rs 7.80 per unit, while Rs 8.80 per unit has been proposed for above 300 units against the existing rate of Rs 8.60 per unit.

For the rural areas, the fixed monthly charges for domestic consumers have been proposed to increase from Rs 20 to Rs 35 and the proposed hike in tariff based on power usage is in the range of 25 to 45 piase.

Following the submission of tariff petition, BERC held public hearings across the state over the last couple of months to seek feedback from various sections of people on the proposed power tariff before taking a final call. The new tariff structure will come into effect from April 1 every year.

“We are in the final stages of preparing the final tariff order for both discoms for the 2019-20 fiscal. We have targeted to issue the tariff order by the end of this month as model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha election is likely to be enforced in March,” said a senior BERC official.

The state government will announce the subsidy to be directly provided to the power consumers following the announcement of tariff order by the BERC. The practice of zero subsidy tariff petition was introduced from the 2017-18 fiscal.

For the fiscal 2017-18, the BERC had given its nod for a hike of around 55% in the tariff for different categories of consumers, which came down to 20% after the state government extended funds to the tune of Rs 2,952 crore against subsidy on power tariff for consumers. The BERC, in its final power tariff order for the current fiscal (2018-19), envisaged a ‘marginal’ hike of 5% for all categories of consumers except high tension special service.