Govt will not allow hike in power tariff, says Jain

Snubbing the power distribution companies, which are demanding a tariff revision citing huge losses, Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said that the Aam Aadmi Party government will not allow any hike in power tariff this year. The minister repeatedly emphasised in the House that the government will ensure that power tariff is not increased, “come what may”.

He alleged that the BJP was trying to effect a tariff hike through the back door. Power tariff in Delhi has remained unchanged over the last two years. The last increase, of 5 per cent, was in 2014. “We have made our calculation and submitted it to the DERC. We will make sure that there is no tariff hike even this year. The BJP is trying something opposite, which is to effect a hike,” Mr Jain said.

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has initiated the annual exercise pertaining to the revision of the tariff. It has held one round of discussion on the demands submitted by the discoms — BSES and TPDDL (Tata Power).

The aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) of the discoms have been pegged at: BSES Rajdhani — `9,052 crore, BSES Yamuna — `4,892 crore and Tata Power — `7,680 crore. However, according to the discoms the figures should be more as the DERC has used their demands made last year to arrive at the ARRs. Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta did raise this point during his intervention in the discussion over the matter. He sought to know the status of the Business Plan Regulations, pending which discoms will not able to submit their fresh petitions. Mr Jain did not respond to this.

Meanwhile, Mr Jain also claimed that power tariff in the national capital will come down significantly if power purchase agreements with power generators, signed by the previous government, are cancelled.