Last Update: June 07, 2023, 4:33 PM IST
The quantum of 6% has been cited in the tripartite agreement signed by the Tamil Nadu government, TANGEDCO and the Center in January 2017 for the implementation of the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Representational photo).
A senior Tangedco official said the tariff petition mentions a year-on-year increase in power tariffs till 2026-27 for all categories of consumers.
As per last year’s order of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC), Tamil Nadu will see a 6% hike in electricity tariffs from July 1. The first round of tariff revision, which was around 15%, came into effect in September, 2022.
“In the tariff petition submitted to TNERC, Tangedco had stated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) value of May (2022) will be taken as the basis for the calculation of tariff for all classes of consumers from next year onwards,” a senior Tangedco said. Officer.
The official further said that the year-on-year increase in power tariffs for all categories of consumers till 2026-27 has been mentioned in the tariff petition. “We have fixed the quantum of hike at 6%. The utility has taken into account the control period of five years, which includes the current financial year,” he said.
The quantum of 6% has been mentioned in the tripartite agreement signed by the state government, TANGEDCO and the central government in January 2017 for the implementation of the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
“Many states are following a common methodology for tariff revision or adopting Wholesale Price Index (WPI) as the basis for calculating the quantum of tariff revision,” the official said.
The petition pointed out the difference between the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and the estimated revenue for the next four years. The figures for 2023-24 to 2026-27 do not include the quantum of increase, which will be decided annually by TNERC.
“Expenses for TANGEDCO are expected to increase by more than Rs 1,000 crore annually as the discom is to sign an agreement for another round of wage hike for its employees. Tangedco and Tantransco have around 80,000 employees and wage agreements have to be signed every five years,” said the official.
Thus, the revision in 2022 will take care of wage hike and discoms will need more money to service their debt and also wipe out its losses. “We need further revision every month to pay the debtors as per the agreement with the Centre. The burden of 6% will not be on all classes of consumers. We will see that the poor and lower middle class people are not burdened further.