HYDERABAD: Fearing adverse impact on their finances, the
Telangana Transco
and Discoms have requested the
Electricity Regulatory Commission
(ERC) not to consider reduction of tariff to major customers, including Railways.
The submission come in the wake of a series of requests made by bulk consumers such as South Central Railway, BSNL, Hindustan Petroleum, TSRTC, irrigation department and a few other central public sector undertakings (PSU). These bulk consumers are major revenue earners for the discoms and any change in their tariff would adversely affect the overall finances of the power utilities.
Citing lower power tariff in neighbouring states, the railways and other PSUs have requested a reduction in tariff and submitted their proposals to the regulatory commission. The commission held series of hearings on the issue and will spell out its decision in a fortnight.
"We have not proposed any hike in power tariff for 2018-19. We have struggled a lot to maintain the old tariff and we managed to do so by improving efficiency. The reduction of tariff will certainly affect our finances. We have submitted the same to the commission," D Prabhakar Rao, CMD of Telangana
Transco
and Genco, told STOI.
Railways and other public sector corporations have argued that the tariff in Telangana, though not increased for the ensuing year, is still on the higher side. They also raised objection over additional surcharge on the power purchased through open access, which has almost touched 2 per unit.
The irrigation department, which is set to consume more than 10,000 MW after the completion of several projects, has also requested for a tariff cut. Sources said that chief minister
K Chandrasekhar Rao
has also recommended a reduction in tariff for lift irrigation projects.
"There may be 10% cut in the tariff for lift irrigation projects from next year," said sources in the discoms. But all other requests for tariff reduction have been rejected by Transco and Discoms.
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