SHIMLA: In Himachal Pradesh domestic consumers, except below poverty line consumers, will have to pay additional 5 paise power tariff from July 1 as the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission has revised the power tariff. The fixed charges for all consumers not covered under demand based fixed charges have been increased by Rs 10 per month to cover the fixed costs of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL).
For new Industrial category of consumers coming into production after July 1 this year, commission has approved energy charges at 15 per cent lower than the notified tariff for the respective categories for a period of three years beginning July 1 this year.
HPSEBL had projected the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) for the fourth control period for five years from financial year 2019-20 to financial year (FY) 2023-24. In its petition, HPSEBL had proposed an ARR of Rs 6,451.53 crore for FY 2019-20 which includes true-up gap of Rs 649.94 crore for FY17 (based on final audited account).
Total revenue proposed by HPSEBL for FY 2019- 20 is Rs 5,357.24 crore at existing tariff resulting in a revenue gap of Rs 1,094.29 crore for FY20.
Commission after detailed examination of the proposal and after hearing the stakeholders determined the aggregate revenue requirement for each year of the fourth control period as Rs 5,285.29 crore for FY 2019-20, Rs 5,532.94 crore for FY 2020-21, Rs 5,905.27 crore for FY 2021-22, Rs 6,142.89 crore for FY 2022-23 and Rs 6,399.25 crore for FY 2023-24.
The aggregate revenue requirement of Rs 5,285.29 crore for FY 2019-20 approved by the commission includes the revenue gap of Rs 18.12 crore on account of true-up of uncontrollable parameters for FY 2016-17, impact of Rs 49.21 crore on account of review order on petition no 25/2018, and provision of Rs 50 crore towards arrears liability on account of 7th pay commission and Rs 50 crore towards likely impact of revision of tariff from HPSEBL own generating stations.
Considering the revenue from existing tariff, a revenue gap of Rs 18.43 has been observed for financial year 2019-20. Therefore, the commission has approved a small tariff increase of 0.4 per cent to meet this gap.
For agricultural consumers under Irrigation and Drinking Water Pumping Supply (IDWPS) category, the energy charges shall be Rs 0.50 per kWh with a reduction of Rs 0.25 paise per kWh. These revised energy charges on the account of government subsidy would only be applicable for agricultural and allied activities and which are paid for by individuals and user groups and load of upto 20 kW only but shall not be applicable for government supply.
The additional demand charges during peak hours of Rs 100 per kVA per month applicable on demand based consumers under industrial and other consumer categories have been removed.
The commission has approved the proposal of the HPSEBL to allow a rebate of 15 per cent discount on energy charges for additional power consumption beyond the level of FY 2018-19 for existing industrial units.
In order to promote generation from the renewable energy sources, the commission has decided that the wheeling charges payable by the small hydro projects covered under renewable energy sources shall be comparable to the wheeling charges for the EHT (extra high tension) category of open access consumers that is 27 paise per unit for financial year 2019-20. However the renewable energy generator shall have to bear the transmission losses as per the actual connected voltage level.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
