Power gets costlier in Punjab, FCA surcharge levied

Consumers will have to shell out more money for usage of electricity in Punjab as the state power corporation is levying Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) surcharge on the consumers.
The FCA surcharge has been levied at a rate of 5 paisa per kilowatt-hour (KWh) each for metered category (domestic, industrial segments) and unmetered category (farming sector), as per Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) notification.
With the levying of surcharge, the state-owned power utility will recover Rs 47.08 crore from metered category and Rs 29.33 crore from unmetered category, as per notification.
The surcharge is levied for the second quarter of 2014-15 (July -September 2014) and it will be recovered from January 1 till March 2015, it said.

FCA is levied to recover any increase in coal and power purchase cost which is required to be collected from power consumers.
PSPCL had projected total revenue gap of Rs 11,317.78 crore up to financial year 2015-16, seeking "appropriate increase" in power tariff from the power regulator to cover the proposed gap.
In an Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) petition submitted with the power regulator Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for the fiscal 2015-16, PSPCL projected net revenue requirement and revenue generation Rs 27,683.96 crore and Rs 24,414.81 crore, leading to annual revenue gap of Rs 3,269.26 crore.
The power regulator in August last year had announced 2.74 per cent hike in power tariff across all consumer categories in Punjab for the financial year 2014-15.