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Consumers of the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MahaVitaran) may face an average nine per cent tariff hike from April 1 next year.
MahaVitaran — which has a consumer base of 22.5 million — submitted its true-up proposal to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) last week. Its annual revenue requirement (ARR) is Rs 56,000 crore and it has plead for an average nine per cent hike in its tariff for 2015-16.
MahaVitaran’s ARR and tariff proposal will come up for discussion at the technical validation session scheduled to be organised by MERC on December 24. The tariff revision will come into effect only after the regulatory body’s approval.
MahaVitaran’s move comes close on the heels of the state government’s decision to stop a monthly subsidy of Rs 616 crore given to subsidise power tariff of its consumers from December onwards. However,the government has continued a subsidy provision of Rs 90 crore given for cut in the tariff of agricultural consumers.
The preceeding Congress-NCP government was providing a total monthly subsidy of Rs 706 crore towards 20 per cent tariff cut since January made effective for various consumer categories.
However, a MahaVitaran official, who did not want to be named, told Business Standard: “The tariff hike is quite inevitable to fill up the gap between the revenue and expenditure. With an average nine per cent hike, the MahaVitaran consumers will have to bear additional burden of an average 50 paise per unit (for high-end consumers 70 paise per unit and for low-end consumers, 40 paise per unit). At present, the cost of power supply is Rs 5.56 per unit.”
The official said MahaVitaran had submitted ARR of Rs 48,000 crore for 2014-15. MERC had, then, allowed for a total of 20 per cent tariff hike but it did not come into effect after the previous government had decided to cut 20 per cent tariff and provide a monthly subsidy of Rs 706 crore. MahaVitaran’s monthly collection is to the tune of Rs 4,200 crore.
According to the official, MahaVitaran’s power distribution will rise to 1,09,000 million units during 2015-16 compared to 95,000 million units in 2014-15. He said MahaVitaran’s distribution loss is 14.7 per cent.
