Delhi power regulator to announce relief for consumers

New Delhi: Amid widespread anger against hike in electricity bills, Delhi's power regulator DERC is set to announce adjustments in the power tariff structure this week to reduce monthly bills of some consumers by upto 18 per cent.

After widespread complaints of inflated power bills, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission had in September proposed to revert to earlier slabs for calculating power tariffs which was abolished while effecting a 26 per cent hike in tariff for domestic consumers in June.

"We want to complete the process to make the adjustments as soon as possible," DERC chief PD Sudhakar said. Sources said the regulator is all set to make the adjustments by this week.

The abolition of the 201-400 units slab and introduction of 0-400 units slab had resulted in significant increase in electricity bills of majority of consumers whose consumption was below 400 units.

A domestic consumer is charged Rs 3.70 per unit if his consumption does not exceed 200 units but if it goes above 200 units and not beyond 400 units then Rs 4.80 per unit is charged as per the new slab of 0-400 units. As per earlier slabs, consumers were charged Rs 3 for first 200 units and then Rs 4.80 for consumption between 201 units and 400 units.

"The power bills of consumers whose monthly consumption does not exceed 250 units will come down by 15 to 18 per cent if we scrap the 0-400 units slab and restore the original slabs of 0-200 units and 201-400 units," Sudhakar said.

The DERC held public hearings last week on the proposal in which a number of RWAs (Resident Welfare Association) demanded restoration of the original slabs.

"Consumption of majority of consumers in the city does not go beyond 400 units per month. So the adjustment will benefit most of the low-end consumers," said Sudhakar.

Following the hike in tariff and abolition of the 201-400 units slab, power bills of low-end consumers have witnessed an increase of over 40 per cent.

The DERC has now proposed to charge Rs 5.70 per unit for consumption between 201-400 units. The regulator had proposed to effect the change in slabs with retrospective effect from July 1 when the hiked tariff came into effect. If the new proposal goes through, consumers will be charged Rs 3.70 for first 200 units and then Rs 5.70 for power consumption between 201 to 400 units.