7.5% power tariff hike for above 100 units

TSRTC hikes bus fares by 80 paise per km

Citizens will have to pay an extra `1,813 in 2016-17 due to the hike in power tariff and RTC bus ticket fares. While the power tariff hike will come into effect from July 1, the RTC fare hike will be from June 27.

Power consumers will have to pay an additional `1,527 crore due to an average 7.5 per cent hike in tariff, and commuters will have to shell out `286 crore more towards increased bus fares in the current financial.

The secretary of Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission said though the Discoms had sought a `1,958-crore tariff hike, the Commission allowed `1,527 crore.

Domestic consumers using up to 100 units, who comprise 60 lakh of the 86 lakh connections in Telangana, have been spared the power tariff hike. Thus a majority of the hike burden will be borne by commercial, IT and industrial sectors.

There is also no tariff hike for agriculture category consumers (20 lakh consumers), except for horticulture nurseries.

The TSERC has also reduced the domestic category slabs from eight to seven while revising the tariff upward for consumers using more than 100 units of energy per month.

Citizens will have to pay an extra `1,813 in 2016-17 due to the hike in power tariff and RTC fares. While the power tariff hike will come into effect from July 1, the RTC fare hike will be from June 27.

Also, slabs under domestic and non-domestic power categories have been merged to simplify tariff structure.

Interestingly, farmers who are income-tax payers have also been included in the free-category, LT-V agriculture. A new HT-V (B) category has been created for Hyderabad Metro Rail.

A “time of day” tariff has also been introduced for HT category consumers to aid in flattening the day load curve while incentivising offpeak hour consumption for eligible consumers.

Transport minister P. Mahender Reddy said the bus fare hike would help save the transport body and jobs. “New fares will come into effect from June 27. The hiked fares will fetch the corporation `286 crore annually”, the minister said, adding that 1,200 new buses would be added to the existing fleet. DC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, JUNE 23