No power tariff hike in State except for railways, says APERC
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has stated that there will not be any revision in the power tariff for the financial year 202425 except for the railways.
APERC Chairman C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy released the Retail Supply Tariff (RST) Order for the year 202425 here on Monday.
Later addressing a press conference, he said that the revenue gap filed by the three Discoms, SPDCL, CPDCL and EPDCL, was ₹13,624 crore. The Discoms have not considered the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) while calculating the revenue gap. The APERC has determined that the revenue gap would be ₹15,299 crore, including the DBT. The Discoms have not communicated how they would bridge the revenue gap for the coming year. There are apprehensions that the power tariff would be hiked to bridge the gap, when the APERC conducted public hearings, he said, adding, “the State government has communicated to the APERC that it would pay the subsidy amount to the Discoms.”
After adjustment of true up/down charges of the previous years, the said amount comes down to ₹13,589 crore. This amount would be treated as a subsidy provided by the government. The APERC has directed the State government that it would have to pay interest on the subsidy if it failed to pay the same in time.
The APERC Chairman said that the energy charges for the railways have been increased from ₹5.50 to ₹6.50 per unit to reflect the actual cost of service and inflation since there is no hike in tariff for the railways from the financial year 202021. The sago mills were included in the seasonal industries category, thus providing some relief. The poultries were allowed 5% of their total consumption under the same category of billing to meet their office and staff quarters consumption, he said.
Mr. Nagarjuna Reddy said grid support charges were limited to only colocated captive power plants as per Appellate Tribunal for Electricity Authority orders. The green tariff was fixed at ₹0.75 premium per unit. The APERC did not accept the proposal to fix the premium at ₹1 per unit for the green tariff. The Commission also decided to fix the tariff for electric vehicles (EVs) same as prevailing in the last year. The tariff would be ₹6.70 per unit without demand charges for the promotion of their penetration even though Discoms proposed to increase it to the cost of service level, he added.