Electricity rates remain unchanged in UP for 4th yr in row :ERC
United News of India
Lucknow, May 25 -- In a major relief to power consumers in Uttar Pradesh, the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) has decided not to make any changes in the slabs of electricity in its tariff order for the current fiscal 2023-24 on Thursday. The ERC has rejected the proposal of power companies to increase the electricity rates by 18 to 23 per cent. The electricity rates for the consumers of the Noida Power Company have been reduced by 10 per cent, sources said. Sources said as per the tariff order the employees of the power department will no longer get electricity at concessional rates, instead they will be put in the category of domestic power consumers. The ERC has issued an order to install meters in the houses of departmental employees compulsorily. As per the order, the existing rate of electricity for consumption between 100 units and from 101 units to 150 units will remain the same and the domestic consumers will be charged at the rate of Rs 5.50 per unit. The electricity rates for consumption between 150 unit to 300 units will also remain the same and the consumers will be charged at the rate of Rs 6 per unit. Electricity rate of Rs 6.50 will be charged for the consumption of over 300 units. For the consumers living below the poverty line, the rates of electricity up to 100 units have been fixed at Rs 3 per unit. Member of the State Advisory Committee (SAC) and chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad Awadhesh Kumar Verma said the ERC has accepted most of the demands of the organisation as the electricity rates of the consumers of Noida Power Company's area have been slashed by 10 per cent. Similar provision was made in the tariff order passed in the last fiscal and the ERC has continued it in the current order. Verma said UP has become the first state in the country where there has not been any increase in electricity rates for the last 4 years, instead the power companies owe a surplus amount of Rs 7,998 crore to the consumers. "After this the total surplus amount of the consumers on the power companies has reached Rs 35,121 crore," he said. He said the ERC has removed the departmental employees from the category of LMV-10 and now they will come under the category of domestic electricity consumers. The order to compulsorily install meters at the homes of all power personnel has also been issued. The SAC member said in order to stop the reduction in electricity rates at the last moment, the proposal made by the Additional Chief Secretary (Energy) to approve the distribution losses under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) was rejected due to arguments of the Upbhokta Parishad. He said the ERC has cut 50 percent of Rs 1,000 crore approved earlier to only 500 crore for delay in implementation of the Compensation Act. "The ERC overlooked the annual revenue requirement (ARR) of 92,564.89 crore filed by the power companies for the year 2023-24 and only the ARR of 86,579.51 crore was approved," he said. Verma said the ERC approved the purchase of 133.45 billion units against the claim of the electricity companies of purchasing 140.96 billion units. "The ERC accepted that distribution losses of 10.3 per cent as compared to 14.90 per cent demanded by the power companies," he said. UNI AB AKS SY Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from United News of India. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at mailto:contentservices@htlive.com">contentservices@htlive.com