The prices of electricity charges in Telangana seems tobe increased to the extent of Rs 1200 crore from November. The discoms have proposed before the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) to increase the electricity charges in the HT category and to allow fixed charges for those who consume more than 300 units per month in the LT category.
Per kilowatt in LT category Rs. 10 as fixed charges, now it will increase by Rs 30 per kilowatt. There are 26 lakh such users. With this increase Rs. 400 crores will be collected by the discoms. HT has different charges for 11 KV, 33 KV and 132 KV capacity connections. 33 KV per unit at Rs. 7.15 per unit for 11 KV at Rs. 7.65, 132 KV and then Rs. 6.62 is being charged.
Henceforth for all categories per unit Rs. 7.65 per cent. The discoms have asked to be allowed to charge . As a result, the respective users will be charged Rs. 800 crore. The term of ERC chairman and members will end on 29th of this month. In this context, the ERC’s approval of DISCOM’s proposals seems to be a formality. If this happens, the increased charges will come into effect from November 1. The ERC’s public hearing is slated for October 23.
Meanwhile, BRS strongly opposed proposals of power distribution companies (discoms) to hike the power tariff and related charges, which could impose a burden of Rs.18,500 crore on the people of Telangana. A BRS delegation led by party working president KT Rama Rao and former Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy submitted a representation to the TSERC to reject the nine proposals submitted by the discoms.
“This is not just a tariff hike; this move will push ordinary families into financial distress, due to increasing power consumption,” KTR cautioned. The former Minister also found fault with the proposal to group all industries under a single category, arguing that this move was unprecedented and could severely affect Telangana’s industrial sector.
He feared that it would spell doom for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), powerlooms and other industries. He pointed out that Telangana’s industrial sector was already under strain due to ill-conceived policies of the Congress government.
