After a steep hike in power tariff in August, the Delhi government is planning to drill another hole in your pocket through electricity bills. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday indicated that the power tariff would be hiked again because of the pressure on the private discoms here.
When asked about the Central government’s statement allowing the state governments to revise the power tariff rate every three months, the chief minister indicated about the revision in current rate.
“Yes we are thinking on revision of power tariff,” said Ms Dikshit.
The 22 per cent hike in power tariff came into force from September 1 but the government faced resistance from Congress MLAs following which the rate was subsidised for limited domestic users. However, within two months the government has decided to revise the rates again.
However, the officials said that no concrete decision has been taken yet about the quantum of tariff hike.
According to senior city government officials, the decision came following the pressure from the private discoms.
Earlier on Thursday, in a huge setback to discoms the Supreme Court directed the two main power distribution companies, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) in the city to pay `45 crores out of `141.24-crore arrears due to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) towards power generation as an adhoc arrangement by November-end.
The court refused to take a lenient view that both the discoms were reeling under heavy revenue loss and it has become impossible for them to supply electricity at the prevalent tariff, which was not sufficient even to cover the cost of distribution.
The court disagreed with the submission made by the two discoms and said it was not going into the technicalities and was only concerned with the payment of dues to the DVC and even warned that if they are finding it difficult they can give way to some other companies.
A concrete decision on the power tariff hike is likely by November-end.