JERC issues tariff orders after admitting petitions and holding public hearings. The department has been filing tariff and aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) petitions before the JERC for every financial year
Panaji: To reduce the burden on consumers in view of the pandemic, the state cabinet on Wednesday decided to give all categories of consumers a subsidy from the period June 1 to September 30 against the power tariff hike as per the new tariff order issued in May for the electricity department.
“Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in lockdown in economic activities and reduced income of most consumers. In such a situation, an increased tariff may impact the economic revival efforts of the government. In view of this, it is proposed to grant subsidy to all the categories of consumers from June 1 to September 30 (four months) to nullify the impact of tariff hike as per the new tariff order issued by JERC so that consumers will effectively be billed at older rates. For the period October 1, 2020, to March, 2021, JERC approved tariff as per order dated May, 2020, will be made applicable,” the cabinet note said.
The state’s electricity department comes under the ambit of the JERC as per the Indian Electricity Act, 2003.
JERC issues tariff orders after admitting petitions and holding public hearings. The department has been filing tariff and aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) petitions before the JERC for every financial year.
For the petition filed by the department for the current financial year the commission had scheduled a public hearing in February and the tariff order was issued and posted on the JERC website in May for implementation from June 1.
The state’s electricity department had proposed an average tariff hike for FY 2020-21to the tune of 3.8% against which the commission approved a tariff hike of 5.3% considering all categories of consumers. The hike was expected to lead an approximately Rs 100 crore increase in revenue.
Source: TNN
