Power bills in Millennium City — it pays the highest tariffs in the country yet faces 8-10 hours of power cuts every day — is about to go up further.
The hike of 20-27 paisa per unit of electricity comes in the guise of a fuel surcharge arrear and will be effective from July.
Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has okayed the surcharge, paving way for distribution companies to collect a whopping Rs 1,705 crore in the next 48 months from consumers struggling to cope with excessively high cost of back-up power on account of regular power cuts.
“Fuel surcharge is due to the increase in cost of power production. The government is not counting it as a power tariff hike,” M.B. Vashisth, director, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam, said. “We had sought the HERC’s permission to collect the same from consumers.”