Haryana rolls back power tariff hike for domestic consumers
Updated: Jan 17, 2014 03:46:13pm
Gurgaon, Jan 17 (KNN) Ahead of the general election, in what is seen as a measure to woo voters, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has rolled back the recent power tariff hike for domestic consumers.
The state government, according to reports, has also reduced tariff for the agriculture sector by 60 per cent (from 25 paise per unit to 10 paise per unit) yesterday, according to reports. These new rates will come into effect from January 2014.
The Haryana government had hiked power tariff by 13 per cent in March last year. However, this had raised dissent among various industrial units.
In this context, the Haryana electricity regulator has invited public comments on various petitions filed on tariff structure for 2014 by various entities including the Faridabad Industries Association (FIA).
“We have expressed our views to the electricity regulators on various counts. First of all the distribution companies blindly propose increase in tariffs year after year without any justification. Rather than doing this, they must cut down their losses and improve their collection efficiency,” Executive Director, FIA, Col S Kapoor told KNN.
“A great deal of theft is also taking place…something which has been going on for more than a year. Rather than taking any action in this regard, the regulator keeps increasing tariff without any accountability or plan of action to achieve set targets,” he added.
In the meantime, being the election year, the regulator has assured industrial units that the tariff will remain unchanged this year; but will do so next year.
“However, they have levied certain other recoveries which have added up to more than the regular tariff. We want to contest this as we seek a more transparent and fair system,” Kapoor said.
Further, according to the Electricity Act of 2003, consumers have the liberty to purchase power outside the state which is cheaper, although a wheeling charge has to be paid.
“But the regulator is now creating hindrances to the system. That is another issue we are going to take up.
The hearing has been scheduled to take place on February-5 and FIA is waiting to see what happens. (KNN/ES)
The state government, according to reports, has also reduced tariff for the agriculture sector by 60 per cent (from 25 paise per unit to 10 paise per unit) yesterday, according to reports. These new rates will come into effect from January 2014.
The Haryana government had hiked power tariff by 13 per cent in March last year. However, this had raised dissent among various industrial units.
In this context, the Haryana electricity regulator has invited public comments on various petitions filed on tariff structure for 2014 by various entities including the Faridabad Industries Association (FIA).
“We have expressed our views to the electricity regulators on various counts. First of all the distribution companies blindly propose increase in tariffs year after year without any justification. Rather than doing this, they must cut down their losses and improve their collection efficiency,” Executive Director, FIA, Col S Kapoor told KNN.
“A great deal of theft is also taking place…something which has been going on for more than a year. Rather than taking any action in this regard, the regulator keeps increasing tariff without any accountability or plan of action to achieve set targets,” he added.
In the meantime, being the election year, the regulator has assured industrial units that the tariff will remain unchanged this year; but will do so next year.
“However, they have levied certain other recoveries which have added up to more than the regular tariff. We want to contest this as we seek a more transparent and fair system,” Kapoor said.
Further, according to the Electricity Act of 2003, consumers have the liberty to purchase power outside the state which is cheaper, although a wheeling charge has to be paid.
“But the regulator is now creating hindrances to the system. That is another issue we are going to take up.
The hearing has been scheduled to take place on February-5 and FIA is waiting to see what happens. (KNN/ES)
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