In a major jolt to around 1.79 crore power consumers in the state, Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) has allowed 24.1% hike in power tariff (electricity charges).
An announcement in this regard was made by the BERC on Thursday in its annual tariff order for the two power distribution companies (discoms) of the state energy department for the fiscal 2023-24.
However, a final tariff rate for calculating electricity charges will come out after the state government announces its subsidy.
The power tariff order has been passed on zero- subsidy basis, which means that the tariff rate may come down, after the state government announces subsidy.
The practice of zero-subsidy tariff petition was introduced from the fiscal 2016-17.
The two discoms — North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) — had submitted their tariff petitions for the next fiscal to the BERC in November last year.
Officials said the two discoms had proposed around 54% hike in the retail electricity tariff, but an overall hike of 24.1% was allowed by the BERC considering the “higher cost of electricity procurement”.
“The discoms had proposed an increase in the tariff cumulatively of 53.62% for fiscal 2023-24. However, keeping in view the revenue deficit situation for the fiscal as determined by the BERC, the commission has decided to increase the tariff by 24.1%,” BERC chairman Shishir Sinha told reporters at the commission’s office here on Thursday.
On being asked about the reason for allowing the hike in power tariff, Sinha said it is broadly due to higher cost to discoms in purchasing electricity.
Officials said Bihar is dependent on the Centre for procurement of electricity mostly from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
The average power purchase cost of discoms is Rs 5.82/kWh (kilowatt hour) and the average cost of supply is Rs8.30/kWh.
The BERC has also allowed a hike in fixed charges for different categories of consumers. For instance, domestic consumers in urban areas will have to pay Rs 80 per kilowatt (kw) per month against the existing Rs 40 per kw per month.
In another major decision, the BERC allowed merging of two lower slabs for domestic power consumers in urban as well as rural areas. Thus, in place of ‘101-200’ units and ‘201 and above units’ for domestic urban consumers, now there is a single slab of “above 100 units”.
Thus, domestic power consumers in urban areas consuming electricity anywhere above 101 units will have to pay Rs 9.1 per unit.
Incidentally, the BERC had not allowed any such consumption-based as well as fixed charges hike for the ongoing fiscal (2022-23).
The two discoms had proposed around a 9.9% hike in the retail electricity tariff but it was turned down by the electricity regulatory commission last year.
A BERC official said a hike of 50% in power tariff was allowed in the 2017-18 fiscal.
Meanwhile, the BERC has fixed the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses or distribution loss trajectory for both discoms for the fiscal 2023-24 at 15% against the claim of 20.12% for NBPDCL and 22.06% for SBPDCL.
“The loss over and above it will not be passed on to the consumers,” the BERC order stated.
The opposition parties in the state, however, said the government was passing on the burden of heavy distribution losses to the consumers by making a steep hike in power tariff.
“The discoms in Bihar had pegged their average AT&C losses in 2020-21 at 30-35%, whereas the national average of the same was 22.3%. The accumulated distribution losses of discoms in Bihar was Rs 9,100 crore between the fiscals 2017-18 and 2020-21. The state government is covering up these heavy distribution losses by passing it on to the common people, which is unacceptable in Bihar where people have low cost of living,” BJP MLC Devesh Kumar told TOI.
