HYDERABAD: Get ready to pay higher electricity bills in the New Year.
With the cabinet sub-committee recommending imposition of fuel surcharge adjustment
(FSA) on domestic, commercial and industrial consumers for the year
2009-10, nearly 2.28 crore power consumers in the state will have to
shell out more to pay electricity bills from January next.
Sources said FSA has been cleared by the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) and is now awaiting chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's nod. Once the CM clears the proposal, four discoms that supply power will start collecting FSA along with regular bills from January 2012. FSA is calculated as an additional cost that the power utilities had paid to purchase power from other states and private companies to meet the increasing power demand.
According to the latest estimates, each consumer in the domestic category will have to cough up an additional 36 paise per unit towards FSA. At present, domestic consumers are paying between Rs 2 and Rs 6.50 per unit based on their monthly consumption. "FSA will further burden the domestic consumers who are already reeling under inflation and increased prices of petroleum products, essential commodities and higher VAT," an industry expert pointed out.
Sources said the government is planning to mop up Rs 1,485 crore from domestic (Rs 477 crore), commercial and industrial (Rs 1,008 crore) consumers with the imposition of the surcharge. "There is no option but to collect FSA from consumers," said a senior official in the energy department.
He recalled that late CM YSR had agreed to reimburse the FSA burden so that domestic consumers were not affected. "But the state's financial position is not conducive to take such bold steps," he reasoned.
The cabinet sub-committee, comprising ministers Dharmana Prasada Rao, N Raghuveera Reddy and Ponnala Laxmaiah, sent the file to the CM for final clearance. Sources said the committee, however, has agreed to exempt agriculture consumers from FSA burden. Meanwhile, the ERC has started second round of public hearings on FSA for 2010-11, which was pegged at more than Rs 3,000 crore. Once the ERC clears the proposals submitted by the discoms and APTransco, consumers will have to pay that FSA also in the coming bills.
"The final hearing of ERC is on November 30. If the proposal gets clearance, power consumers will have to cough up almost double the amount towards their monthly electricity bills," pointed out a Transco official. Discoms, which are in deep in the red are insisting on FSA by calculating it every three months and collecting it from the fourth month so that they will not have liquidity problem to buy power.
Sources said FSA has been cleared by the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) and is now awaiting chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's nod. Once the CM clears the proposal, four discoms that supply power will start collecting FSA along with regular bills from January 2012. FSA is calculated as an additional cost that the power utilities had paid to purchase power from other states and private companies to meet the increasing power demand.
According to the latest estimates, each consumer in the domestic category will have to cough up an additional 36 paise per unit towards FSA. At present, domestic consumers are paying between Rs 2 and Rs 6.50 per unit based on their monthly consumption. "FSA will further burden the domestic consumers who are already reeling under inflation and increased prices of petroleum products, essential commodities and higher VAT," an industry expert pointed out.
Sources said the government is planning to mop up Rs 1,485 crore from domestic (Rs 477 crore), commercial and industrial (Rs 1,008 crore) consumers with the imposition of the surcharge. "There is no option but to collect FSA from consumers," said a senior official in the energy department.
He recalled that late CM YSR had agreed to reimburse the FSA burden so that domestic consumers were not affected. "But the state's financial position is not conducive to take such bold steps," he reasoned.
The cabinet sub-committee, comprising ministers Dharmana Prasada Rao, N Raghuveera Reddy and Ponnala Laxmaiah, sent the file to the CM for final clearance. Sources said the committee, however, has agreed to exempt agriculture consumers from FSA burden. Meanwhile, the ERC has started second round of public hearings on FSA for 2010-11, which was pegged at more than Rs 3,000 crore. Once the ERC clears the proposals submitted by the discoms and APTransco, consumers will have to pay that FSA also in the coming bills.
"The final hearing of ERC is on November 30. If the proposal gets clearance, power consumers will have to cough up almost double the amount towards their monthly electricity bills," pointed out a Transco official. Discoms, which are in deep in the red are insisting on FSA by calculating it every three months and collecting it from the fourth month so that they will not have liquidity problem to buy power.
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