DERC may review power tariff structure
Flooded with complaints of inflated bills, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission may examine making certain adjustments in power tariff structure to bring some relief to the consumers.
Flooded with complaints of inflated bills, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission may examine making certain adjustments in power tariff structure to bring some relief to the consumers.
DERC chairman PD Sudhakar said the regulator has received large number of petitions demanding review of tariff slabs and soon the process to examine the issue will begin.
Effecting a 26% hike in tariff for domestic consumers in June, the DERC had abolished the slab of 200-400 units, resulting in a 33% hike in electricity bills of consumers whose consumption exceed 200 units.
Now, if the monthly consumption goes above 200 units then a consumer would be charged Rs. 4.80 per unit for the entire consumption as against previous arrangement of different rates for first 200 units and the next 200 units.
The charges for consumption up to 200 units is much lower than the consumption between 200 and 400 units.
"We have received petitions demanding review of the slabs. We will carry out hearing on the issue," Sudhakar said.
Following abolition of the 200-400 slab, the power bills of residents whose monthly consumption exceeds 200 units have gone up significantly as a separate category of 0-400 unit was introduced.
A domestic consumer is now charged Rs. 3.70 per unit for first 200 units of power instead of earlier Rs. 3. Consumers having a monthly usage of up to 400 units are charged Rs. 4.80 per unit.
At a public hearing in DERC on Friday, a number of Resident Welfare Associations demanded review of the existing slabs to provide relief to the consumers.
"We have demanded that slabs such as 0-50 units, 0-100 units, 100-200 units, 200-400 units are introduced to provide relief to consumers," said Rajiv Kakria, chairman of GK-I RWA.
The RWAs also strongly opposed to the draft Delhi Electricity Supply Code and Performance Standards Regulations 2012 being brought by the DERC to ensure improvement in functioning of the power distribution companies.
"It is an eyewash as this draft touches only peripheral issues as it left out key points of performance standards and the rotten infrastructure," said Kakria.