Power bills for all categories of consumers will see a jump as the Discoms have decided to impose 21 paise fuel surcharge on every unit of power consumed.
As the power department is purchasing coal at higher prices, an additional burden of Rs 200 crore, out of total Rs 375 crore, has been levied on the consumer.
An official said, “Electricity distribution companies will collect Rs 200 crore from consumers through bills. This also includes consumers having agriculture connections with free electricity up to fifty units. The remaining Rs 175 crore will be borne by the state government. This amount will be directly transferred by the government in the distribution companies’ account.”
There are 1.42 crore electricity consumers in the state. The move will burn a hole in the pockets of consumers as the government, in the form of fuel surcharge, has imposed an additional burden of 69 paise per unit.
An official said the surcharge has been calculated on the basis of the difference in fuel purchase rate from July to September this year. This situation occurred due to the purchase of coal at an expensive price for power generation. Earlier, 5.79 lakh metric tonnes of coal was imported from abroad, the total cost of which was estimated to be around Rs 1042 crore. The department also said the Centre had allocated less coal to the state from local sources forcing it to purchase imported coal. On the directions of the Centre, it purchased coal from other countries.
Sources said power crisis due to shortage of coal is not going to end in near future as receiving coal rakes from the Parsa East Kate Basan (PEKB) coal block in Chhattisgarh remains a challenge for Rajasthan. “During the recent visit to Rajasthan, coal minister Prahlad Joshi told that the Chhattisgarh government is in no mood to allow mining there and has asked the Centre to cancel the allotment,” said a source.
