Pay 25-30 pc more for power

From next month,city residents will have to shell out 25-30 per cent more for consuming electricity.

From next month,city residents will have to shell out 25-30 per cent more for consuming electricity. Having got the approval from Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission,the Chandigarh Administration is likely to implement the revised electricity tariff rates from first week of August.

Yes,the rates are definitely going to increase,but we are waiting for the final orders. Most probably,from first week of August,the new rates shall become effective, Finance Secretary V K Singh told Newsline.

As per the revised rates,a domestic consumer will have to pay Rs 2.10 per unit up to 150 units and for each unit above 150,the charges will be Rs 3.80 per unit. Currently,the rates are Rs 1.65 per unit up to 150 units and Rs 2.90 for each unit above it.

The Chandigarh Administration had approached JERC,New Delhi for its approval for increasing the power tariff in the city. The JERC observed that the average existing tariffs for all categories of consumers in Chandigarh were lower than the average cost of supply in the city,with domestic consumers paying nearly 20 per cent less than supply cost.

The Administration has also made two slabs of power tariffs for the commercial sector. While the below 20 kW consumers shall bear Rs 5 as fixed charges,the consumers using electricity load above 20 kW shall be required to pay Rs 60 as fixed charges. In both the slabs,the consumers shall now be required to pay Rs 4.10 per unit.

The revised power tariff shall approximately increase the monthly bills of consumers by around 20-25 per cent per month. This will definitely ensure better power supply to the entire city, said a senior UT electricity department official.

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