Even as the power crisis in Uttar Pradesh worsens with every passing day, the Akhilesh Yadav government has given yet another shock to harried consumers. The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPREC) on Friday night approved a significant hike for domestic, commercial and rural power consumers though industry has been spared the hike.
For rural domestic consumers having unmetered supply, the fixed charge has been hiked from `125 per connection in a month to `180 per month. The tariff has been increased for rural consumers after three years.
For the metered rural consumers, the fixed charge has been increased from `15 per KW per month to `50 per KW per month. The energy charge also has been hiked from `1 per kWh to `2.20 per kWh (kilowatt hour).
The electricity tariff for private tubewell connections for farmers has been hiked from `75 per month to `100 per month. The energy charge for tube wells too has been hiked from `0.75 per kWh to `1 per kWh.
Electricity tariffs have been hiked for urban domestic consumers with fixed charge being increased from `65 per KW per month to `75 per KW per month.
Energy charges have also been increased from `3.45 per kWh to `4 per kWh up to 200 kWh per month.
The hike between consumption of 201-500 kWh per month is from `3.80 to `4.50 per kWh. A new slab of `5 per kWh has been proposed for consumption above 500 kWh.
For the non-domestic light fan and power category the consumers who are getting supply as per rural schedule will now have to pay `300 per connection per month instead of earlier `200 per month.
Fixed charges for metered connections have also been increased from existing `50 per month to `65 per month. The energy charge has been increased from `1.90 kWh to `2.50 kWh.
A minor hike in minimum charges for private advertising, sign post, glow signs has also been made and it will be now `1,200 KW per month instead of earlier `1,000 KW per month.
In cases of metered supply, the fixed charge has been hiked from `15 per kilowatt per month to `50 per month, while energy charge has been increased from `1 per unit to `2.2 per unit, according to official sources.
While a UPREC official said that the hike in power tariffs had already been postponed long enough and was essential in view of rising electricity costs, the chairman of UP State Power Consumers’ Council, Avadhesh Kumar Verma, said that the hefty hike in power rates was an anti-people decision taken under pressure from the state government.