Stiff opposition emerges for power tariff hike in both the districts
Digital Goa, Jan 8 – Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) hearing over proposed power tariff hike is on in both the districts of Goa today. If approved by the commission, the new tariff will be implemented from April 1, 2024. As per the proposal 6 per cent tariff hike has been proposed from domestic consumers in the first two slabs of 0 to 100 and 101 to 200 units power consumption category, while overall hike of 3.48 % has been proposed, informed Chief Electricity Engineer Stephen Fernandes during the hearing. He added that maximum that is around 4 lakh consumers in the state fall within this bracket of 0 to 200 units. People from both the districts as well as political leaders from opposition parties attended the hearing and opposed the tariff hike. Political party leaders advised the govt to recover the pending dues to bridge the revenue gap. Consumers also highlighted issued related to frequent disruption in power supply. The department has proposed a hike in energy charges of low tension domestic consumers from Rs 1.75/kWh to Rs 1.88/kWh for 0-100 units (12 paise hike), from Rs 2.6 to Rs 2.79/kWh (19 paise rise) for consumption between 101-200 units, from Rs 3.3/kWh to Rs 3.7/kWh for consumption between 201-300 units (40 paise hike), from Rs 4.4/kWh to Rs 4.9/kWh between 301-400 units (50 paise hike) and from Rs 5.1/kWh to Rs 5.8/kWh per unit for consumption above 400 units (70 paise hike). It has also proposed a hike in energy charges for low tension consumers in the commercial, industrial, hotel industries and agricultural categories as well as for public lighting, hoardings and sign- board and electric vehicle charging station categories. As per the petition, the electricity department’s Net Annual Recurring Revenue(ARR) is estimated at Rs 3,057.5 crore for 2024-25. While revenue from sales at existing tarrif will be Rs 2,442.60 crore creating a revenue gap of Rs 614.94 crore. Even with the budgetary support of Rs 414.73 crore committed by the govt, there will be a balance gap of Rs 200.22 crore states the departments petition places before the JERC. From the proposed tariff hike on LT consumers, the electricity department expects to earn additional Rs 85 crore, while the time of day (ToD) tariff is expected to fetch another Rs 115.3 crore for the dept.
