No hike in Punjab power tariff

Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 27

With the Punjab Assembly poll round the corner, the PSERC has brought relief for the 85 lakh power consumers in the state. For a second consecutive year, the power tariff for the year 2016-17 has been left unchanged.

The state electricity regulatory commission has also announced a number of sops for two important categories of consumers — a portion of agriculture pump set consumers get free replacement of their pumpsets, while all categories of industrial consumers will get a relief of Rs 0.36- Rs 0.11 per unit in power tariff. The new rates will be applicable from August 1.

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The power tariff for the domestic, non-residential consumers and bulk supply consumers has remained unchanged, although the power subsidy bill of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited will swell from Rs 5,600 crore last fiscal to Rs 6,364 crore this year.

Announcing the detailed power tariff order today, Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) chairman DS Bains said the decision to not increase the tariff was not based on political considerations, but because the state was “power surplus” and thus, there was no need to burden the consumers. Bains in fact projected the state power utility to have a revenue surplus of Rs 165.94 crore. He said the PSPCL would save a total of Rs 270 crore this year – Rs 120 crore through interest payment and Rs 150 crore towards bringing down transmission and distribution losses to 14.5 per cent by the end of this fiscal.

A number of concessions for consumers have also been announced. There is some relief for marriage palaces which will now pay annual minimum charges rather than monthly minimum charges; quicker release of connections; early restoration of supply and faster replacement of defective meters; procedures to be simplified for release of new connections; and penalty for deficiency in service enhanced ten times.

An SMS alert system for agriculture pump set consumers to inform them of electricity supply schedule 24 hours in advance has also been announced. The electricity regulatory commission has abolished peak load hour restrictions and introduced Time of Day Order (rebate for consuming power at low demand hours) for two months.

During this year, PSPCL and PSTCL (Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited) have made a Rs 2,100-crore capital investment plan for the upgradation of distribution and transmission network.