Electricity to cost more in UP

Power consumers in Uttar Pradesh will have to pay more for electricity as the UP State Electricity Regulatory Commission today revised tariff upwards for 2014-15.
High drama marked the announcement of the new tariff as BJP workers, led by state president Laxmi Kant Bajpai, staged a dharna protesting the hike in power tariff.
Apprehending trouble, a large number of police personnel were deployed at the State Electricity Regulatory Commission office.
The fixed charge for unmetered rural domestic consumers has been revised. Now instead of Rs 180 per connection per month as fixed charge, rural consumers would be required to pay Rs 180 per kilowatt a per month for a load of two KWs.

For load of more than two kilowatts, the fixed charge would be Rs 200 per KW per month.
Energy charges for supply at single point for bulk loads has been hiked to Rs 5.25 per unit from existing Rs 4.5 per unit.

A new slab has been introduced for urban domestic consumers. Under this slab, consumers would be charged at the rate of Rs 5.5 per unit in case of consumption of more than 500 units a month.
The tariff for lifeline consumers with contracted load of one kilowatt and energy consumption of up to 150 units per month has also been revised. For power consumption between 101 units and 150 units, Rs 2.85 per unit would be charged in place of Rs 2.6 per unit.

Fixed charges for unmetered commercial consumers in rural areas has been revised. They would now be Rs 350 per KW per month for up to the load of two kilowatts and above that Rs 400 per kilowatt per month would be charged.
In urban areas, energy charge has been divided in four slabs. While charges up to consumption of 300 units per month remain unchanged, consumers would be required to pay at the rate of Rs 6.8 per unit for consumption between 301 units and 1,000 units and Rs 7.1 per unit for consumption above 1,000 units.
Energy charges for public lamps, public and private institutions, private tubewells and pumping sets for irrigation, small and medium industries have also been hiked.

The new tariff was announced by UP State Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman Desh Deepak Verma.