City residents should brace to shell out more for using electricity. The Chandigarh electricity department has proposed a hike of up to 40 per cent — in different slabs of both domestic and commercial categories — under the multi-year tariff (MYT) system which will come into force from April 1. The department is in the process of finalising the proposal, which will be submitted to Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for approval for control period of 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19. Under the existing system, the tariff revision is done annually by the commission. However, under MYT, the tariff will be fixed for a period of three years. The previous tariff revision of tariff was done in 2012, which has led to a gap between revenue and expenditure, forcing the department to propose a steep hike now. The commission has been turning down the tariff proposals on grounds of failure of the department to get commercial audit done, which is mandatory. After dilly-dallying on the issue, the department has finally got the commercial audit done. Earlier, accounts of the department were audited along with the other departments of the Chandigarh administration whereas, as per norms, the department has to get its accounts audited separately. Despite repeated attempts, UT superintending engineer MP Singh was unavailable for comment. The electricity department caters to 2.12 lakh consumers, of which 1.75 lakh are in the domestic category. Of the total, there is regular billing of around 94 per cent of consumers. As per the present tariff, the consumer has to pay Rs 2.30 per unit in the slab of 0 to 150 in the domestic category. In slab of 151-400, one has to pay Rs 4.20 and Rs 4.40 per unit for slab above 400. In the commercial category, consumers are paying Rs 4.30, Rs 4.50 and Rs 4.70 for slab between 0to 150, 151 to 400 and above 400, respectively. The present power demand of Chandigarh is 320 mega watt (MW). The peak demand in the financial year touched 395 MW and is expected to reach 406 MW in 2015-16. For 2016-17, 17-18 and 18-19, the peak demand is projected to be 426 MW, 450 MW and 475 MW.
