Mumbai: Pay more for the power you consume at home

Electricity tariff rates across Maharashtra have been hiked with retrospective effect from June 1.

Electricity tariff rates across Maharashtra have been hiked with retrospective effect from June 1. This means that in Mumbai and Thane, around 21 lakh domestic consumers of Reliance Energy, especially those based in the northern and western suburbs, will have to shell out an average of 5% more than their current billing.

While the 6 lakh-odd domestic consumers of Tata Power Company will pay 1% less, the domestic consumer category consuming between 300 and 500 units will see an 11% increase in their rates in case of Reliance, while it will be about 3% for Tata consumers, who are spread around the island city and suburbs. In case of state energy distributor Mahavitaran consumers in the rest of the state, this increase ranges from 0 to 8% in different domestic categories.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority (MERC) approved a tariff hike for consumers across the state on Friday

The tariff order is, however, a big boost to industries, powerlooms and cold storage facilities in the state, which will be seeing an average reduction of 7% to 10% in tariffs, to bring it at par with other states that are pro-industry.

The commission has increased the tariff for agriculture consumers across the state only marginally by Rs. 0.06 per kWh, especially un-metered connections, to make the conversion of unmetered to metered connections attractive.

All power companies had put forth their proposals for tariff hikes which were evaluated through public hearings and the electricity act, following which the new rates were put out, which will have to be followed by the power companies.