Delhi reduces power rates across slabs for domestic & industrial consumers

After a five years hiatus, Delhi government has revised the power rates across the board for domestic and industrial consumers. 

In the domestic segment, the reduction has been close to 25 per cent across all slabs with lowest rate being Rs 3 per unit now.

The fixed charge has been increased for all consumers in the range of Rs 125/kW/month to Rs 250/kW/month. It was earlier in the range of Rs 20/kw/month to Rs 100/kW/month. 

There would, however, be no negative impact on the consumers, said the announcement by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).

The average least monthly bill across all slabs would be Rs 1865 against Rs 1927 earlier. 

For non-domestic and industrial consumers, the rates have been revised downwards to a singular rate across slabs to Rs 8/unit and Rs 7.5/unit, respectively. 

The 8 per cent surcharge introduced by DERC last year, to be levied over and above the overall power bill continues to stay. 

The DERC has also introduced a new slab for paying guest upto load of 2kW. For promoting e-rickshaws and vehicles, the tariff remains unchanged as last year at Rs 8 per unit. 

A new introduction in the tariff plan is the time of the day tariff for all consumers except domestic ones. The time of the day tariff varies as per peak and off peak demand. The surcharge levied on energy charge during peak hours would be 20% and rebate of 20% during off-peak hours.

In the past five years, this is the first tariff revision. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which came to power in 2014, slashed power rates by half for low consumption bands. 

The downward tariff revision comes at a time when Delhi is expected to touch a record demand of 7,000MW during summer months this year.