Power tariff hike in New Delhi to come into effect from tomorrow

The 26 % hike in power tariff for domestic consumers in the city will come into effect from Sunday.

The 26 % hike in power tariff for domestic consumers in the city will come into effect from Sunday.

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The new rates were announced by the Delhi electricity regulatory commission Wednesday.

The domestic consumers will be the hardest hit as tariff for the segment has been hiked the most compared to commercial and industrial categories.

This is the fourth hike in tariff in the last 10 months.

The regulator in August last year had hiked the tariff by 22 % for all categories of consumers. The tariff was hiked by five % in February and by upto two % in May to adjust the power purchase cost of the distribution companies.

The hike in areas served by NDPL will be around 27.88 % while the increase in areas served by BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd will be 25.47 % and 25.29 % respectively.

Justifying the hike, the DERC had said the combined deficits of three discoms have been estimated at around Rs. 6,000 crore and there was no alternative but to hike the tariff.

As per the new rates, a domestic consumer will be charged Rs. 3.70 per unit for the first 200 units of power instead of the current Rs. 3. Consumers having a monthly usages of upto 400 units will have to pay Rs. 4.80 per unit of power.

For consumption above 400 units, Rs. 6.40 per unit will be charged instead of current Rs. 5.70, Sudhakar said.

The increase may also lead to hike in metro fares and water charges as DERC announced separate rates for power being supplied to these two entities.

The monthly fixed charges for consumers have also been hiked significantly. For a consumer having a sanctioned load of upto 2 kilowatts, the rate tariff has been increased from Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 while consumers having sanctioned load between 2 kilowatts to 5 kilowatts will have to pay Rs. 100 as fixed charges instead of the current Rs. 75.

The fixed charges for consumers having a sanctioned load of above five kilowatt will be Rs. 20 instead of current Rs. 15.

The DERC announced separate rates for industrial units, agricultural activities, public lighting etc.

For Delhi Metro, rates have been increased to Rs. 5 per unit from Rs. 3.80 per unit while for Delhi Jal Board it has been hiked to Rs. 7.25 per unit from Rs. 5.60 for load of upto 10 kilowatts.

For load between 10 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts, per unit of power would cost Rs. 6.60 while Rs. 8 has been fixed per unit for load beyond 100 kilowatts.