No power tariff hike proposed in Haryana for next fiscal year

No power tariff hike in Haryana has been proposed during the the next financial year 2014-2015, a senior state officer said here today.
The present level of tariff would continue up to March 2015 whereas in majority of states including Punjab, Delhi, UP and Rajasthan, tariff increase of more than 10 per cent has been proposed with effect from April 2014, this was stated by Principal Secretary, Power, Devender Singh.
From January 1 this year Haryana has given the benefit of lower slab of tariff to the consumers using 200 to 1600 units in a billing cycle. This is expected to result in a benefit of approximately Rs 200 per bill to a consumer, he said.

Haryana has one of the lowest tariff in agriculture category, he said. The entire Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) of the agriculture consumers is also being borne by the government.
The state government is paying a subsidy of Rs 90,000 to 1 lakh per connection whereas the farmer is paying just Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per year, he said.
"Haryana has subsidised the power to farmers in the overall national economic interest as Haryana is the foodgrain basket of the country," he said.

In Delhi the subsidy is Rs 1,300 crores whereas Haryana is providing a subsidy of Rs 5,200 crores, which is 4 times as that of the national capital, he pointed out.

He further said that Haryana has a high loss level of 25 per cent as compared to Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan (15-18 per cent) and added the Discoms are making efforts to reduce the losses.
On the qualitative side, Haryana has supplied 20 per cent more power during the current year. In rural areas the power supply was increased from 11 to 14 hours a day. For urban areas the power supply was increased from 20 to 24 hours and for industry from 20 to 24 hours per day, he said.
In order to strengthen and augment transmission and distribution system it has been planned to spend Rs 3,372.79 crore during the current financial year, Singh added.