Suburban power tariff likely to increase

The suburban power tariff of the Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. (R-Infra) is expected to rise further – the Maharashtra State Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved the recovery of tariff recovery amounting to Rs2,316 from consumers.

The suburban power tariff of the Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. (R-Infra) is expected to rise further – the Maharashtra State Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved the recovery of tariff recovery amounting to Rs2,316 from consumers.

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The company can also recover cross-subsidy surcharge (CSS) from those consumers who have migrated to Tata Power Company Ltd (TPC).

The arrears in tariff are to the tune of Rs1300 crore for the year 2009-10. The remainder consists of arrears from 2004-05.

On Wednesday, an R-Infra spokesman said that he would not be able to assess the rise because the regulator did not determine the period over which RInfra would be allowed to recover arrears in tariff. But he maintained that rise would be marginal because the company’s power purchase costs would be less in future, bringing down the average tariff.

MERC is now determining the formula to calculate CSS for all distribution utilities in the state. Nearly 90% of Tata’s 1.8 lakh consumers have shifted from RInfra.