WBSEDCL keen to raise tariff

West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL), a state government owned power utility with a customer base of over 68 lakh, was expecting an additional revenue of around Rs225 crore this fiscal from a possible tariff revision.

It had submitted a proposal to the West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) for determination of tariff, aggregate revenue requirement and expected revenue from charges between 2008-09 to 2010-11.

It proposed to raise the tariff from Rs3.27 per Kilowatt-hour(KWH) now to Rs3.35 per KWH in 2008-09.

If passed, the tariff would be applicable from April this year and the consumers would have to pay arrear charges, said M K De, chairman and managing director, WBSEDCL.

When asked which category of consumers could see a rise in tariff, De said that low tension (LT) domestic users would see some hike in price of power.

"If we pass on the rising cost of fuel and other overhead costs to the high tension commercial users only, they could move to other providers like Damodar Valley Corporation or CESC. In such a situation, charges for LT domestic customers could increase three-fold", he added.

There could be re-introduction of Monthly Minimum Charge for LT commercial consumers as well.

Consumers were divided across 30 categories.

WBSEDCL proposed to raise the tariff to Rs3.40 per KWH in 2009-10 and subsequently to Rs3.6 per KWH in 2010-11 in the proposal.

The revision of tariff was essential to meet the additional power purchase cost due to hike in fuel price, De said.

Fuel costs were up by 15 per cent in the last one year and the power purchase costs have increased by 5-6 per cent, he explained.

It purchased power from National Hydrolectric Power Corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation, and West Bengal Power Development Corporation limited.

WBSEDCL sold 13,800 million units of power to its own customers last fiscal, and around 17,000 million units to CESC.

The demand for power was rising on average by 8 per cent every year. WBSEDCL had a turnover of around Rs6000 crore last fiscal, the very first year of its operation, and registered a profit of Rs100 crore, De said.