The Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance government headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is set to give rude shock to the electricity consumers of the state, starting November 1.
Though it is not exactly in the form of increase in power tariff per se, the consumers will find a substantial hike in their electricity charges to the extent of Rs 1.21 paise per unit over the next 15 months, in the name of fuel and power purchase cost adjustments (FPPCA).
This was announced through an order by the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission on Friday. The Discoms will have to implement the same with effect from November bills.
So, a domestic power consumer who consumes 200 units of power per month, will have to pay an additional Rs 242 per month, apart from the normal power tariff, for the next 15 months.
The APERC approved this recovery of FPPCA charges, amounting to approximately Rs 6,073 crore by the distribution companies (Discoms) from the public towards power consumed by them during the FY 2022-23, against Rs 8,114 crore proposed by the Discoms.
However, the commission directed the Discoms to recover the charges over a period of 15 months (instead of as a lump sum) to avoid hardship and “tariff shock” to the consumers.
An APERC release said the charges allowed to be recovered were Rs 2,041 crore less than what the Discoms applied for, and the approval was given after a comprehensive public consultation process and public hearing.
As far as the agricultural consumption under the free power category and other subsidised/partly subsidised consumers were concerned, the commission directed the Discoms to recover nearly Rs 1,400 crore out of the Rs 6,073 crore from the state government, thereby benefiting 20 lakh consumers.
It was only in March this year, the APERC announced that there will be no increase in power tariff for consumers of any category in the state other than the railways, while approving the new power tariff for the financial year from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 in AP.
The annual revenue requirement was proposed by Discoms including SPDCL, CPDCL and EFPDL at Rs 56,573.03 crore while it was approved by APERC at Rs 56,501.81 crore.
Similarly, against the proposed revenue gap filed by Discoms at Rs 13,624.67 crore, the APERC fixed it at Rs 15,299.18 crore.
Moreover, the state government would be providing subsidy support after adjustments of true up/down of previous years, to an extent of Rs 13,589.18 crore. This subsidy was over Rs 3,453.96 crore compared to the last year’s subsidy of Rs 10,135.22 crore.
