Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) Thursday ordered that the power tariff will remain unchanged for 2018-19 fiscal stating that the tariff hike will put extra burden on common people.
“The power tariff will remain unchanged for domestic consumers, commercial and industrial units for the year 2018-19,” said the OERCs director (regulatory affairs) Priyabrat Patnaik.
He said the power tariff for domestic consumers having consumption upto 50 units has remained unchanged at Rs 2.50 paise per unit. According to him 1% rebate over and above the normal rebate will be given if consumers pay bills online.
The OERC last year hiked of 10 paise per unit in electricity tariff for 2017-18.
The Commission has fixed the tariff at Rs 2.50 per unit for the first 50 units, Rs 4.30 per unit for consumption above 50 units upto 200 units, Rs 5.30 per unit for consumption above 200 to 400 units and Rs 5.70 per unit for consumption above 400 units.
Patnaik said that the OERC has rejected the appeals of various distribution companies to hike power tariff,
Two state-owned power generation companies, Odisha Hydropower Corporation (OHPC) and Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC), earlier urged the OERC to hike power tariff.
Power distribution companies such as Gridco, OPTCL, CLDC, Cesu, Cesco, Nesco, Wesco, Southco too had been demanding tariff hike citing increase in infrastructure cost.
The OERC has said that the distribution companies should take steps to reduce the aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) losses which will help them reduce losses.
According to a thump rule, 1% reduction in AT&C loss can generate additional revenue of Rs 90-100 crore for the state.
