For 2nd year in row, no change in power tariff

It is unlikely that the state government will allow power tariffs to be increased for the second consecutive year. The power distribution companies who will submit tariff proposals to the TS State Regulatory Commission by December 15 will be suggesting that the existing tariffs be continued for 2018-19, though they had earlier pitched for a raise. The power tariff was last hiked in 2016 and remained unchanged in 2017.

When power officials met Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao to discuss the tariff proposal, they brought to his notice that demand for power will increase drastically in 2018 due to the 24-hour free power to agriculture announced from January 1 across the state, Mission Bhagiratha which will pump water for the Krishna and Godavari and major lift irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram, Palamur-Ranga Reddy. A minor increase in power tariff is thus necessary, they argued.

The tariff was last hiked in 2016 and stayed unchanged in 2017.

It is unlikely that the state government will allow power tariff to be increased for the second consecutive year.

The CM was averse to the idea of any increase with elections coming up in 2019. He said the discoms that the government had taken over `10,000 crore debt burden of discoms by joining the Centre’s Uday scheme and as such there was no burden on the discoms at present.

Following this, the discoms are reworking the tariff proposals to be submitted to TSERC seeking no change in power tariff for 2018-19.

Even the tariff hike for commercial and industrial sectors, leaving out domestic consumers, was not approved by the CM as states are in stiff competition to attract industrial investments by offering lower power tariff.

The CM is also learnt to have pointed out that the power purchase cost has come down drastically across the country due to abundant availability of power, due to which power is now being purchased for just `2 to `3 per unit against the earlier `10 to `15 per unit.