CESC raises pitch for power tariff revision

Power utility CESC has once again raked concerns that state governments and regulators are not permitting power producers to raise electricity tariffs, placing an inordinate strain on their balance sheets at a time costs have shot through the roof.

The company, which serves more than 3.5 million consumers in Calcutta and adjoining areas, said the cost of coal, the primary raw material for thermal power units, has risen in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and due to supply-demand mismatch.

In his address to shareholders carried in the annual report of the company, CESC chairman Sanjiv Goenka flagged the issue as a ‘short to medium term constraint’. “It is vital that power producers and distributors be able to expeditiously pass on purely the element of higher fuel cost through tariffs.