Power tariffs set to go up in Bihar

State govt has already submitted its proposal to Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission

Despite the election season, the state government's power distribution companies (DISCOM) are pushing for a major hike in the electricity tariffs on account of the rising operational costs.

According to state government officials, these companies are already under heavy losses.

Hence, it's imperative for these companies to pass some of their cost to the customers. "Inflation has made everything dearer in this country," said state's energy minister Vijayendra Yadav, "Due to this, our costs have also gone up. Our DISCOMs are already reeling under heavy losses; therefore we have been left with no other option."

The state government has already submitted its proposal to the Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC), the authority responsible for fixing electricity prices in the state, for the tariff hike.

The BERC would more likely to decide on this matter early next month. According to the sources, the state government, in its proposal, has asked the commission for a 20-25 percent increase in the power tariffs. However, going by the past records, the commission may grant a hike of up to 10 percent.

Government officials have blamed Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) like NTPC and Power Grid for this. "We are fully dependent on PSUs for electricity. They have recently increased their prices, leaving us with no other option. NTPC has upped its tariffs citing the rising prices of coal. They served us with an extra bill for Rs 250 crore on account of coal price hike. Power Grid has doubled its bill to Rs 36 crore, which was just Rs 16 crore in the last fiscal,"said state's energy secretary Sandeep Paundrik. "The rising operational cost of DISCOMs has drained them. Therefore, we now have to share some of our burden with consumers."

He added, "Our DISCOM's monthly revenue is around Rs 300 crore, whereas their expenses are double of that. We get around Rs 200 crore from state government as grants, still leaving a gap of Rs 100 crore every month. Delaying tariff hike would be very bad for the financial health of our DISCOMs."