Hyderabad: Closely following the tariff order of neighbouring AP, the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) on Friday spared domestic consumers who consume up to 200 units per month.

The Commission hiked power charges by 4.42 per cent for those who consume more than 201 units a month — under telescopic system, i.e., every unit costs 42 paisa more than the existing tariff.

The new tariffs, which will be effective from April 1, will fetch an additional Rs 816 crore for the two distribution companies, TSSPDCL and TSNPDCL, annually. According to the tariff order released by TSERC chairman Ismail Ali Khan on Friday, nearly 80 lakh out of the total 88 lakh domestic consumers will continue to pay the existing rates. The average increase in tariff for the entire domestic category will be 1.3 per cent.

The remaining 8 lakh — who comprise middle, upper-middle and wealthy sections of the society — will have to bear the brunt.

The policy of free power for the 18.54 lakh agricultural pump sets will continue in the next financial year as well.

Small scale vendors to be affected/hit

Small-scale vendors will be affected by the power tariff hike. Though there will be no tariff hike for those who consume up to 50 units a month, there will be steep hike of Rs 1.20 paisa per unit thereafter.

Pointing out that somebody has to bear the costs, a commission member said, “You see, the present inflation rate is around 7 per cent but we have hiked charges only by 4.42 per cent, which means nothing.”

The commission has merged the three slabs of consumption between 401-500 units and ‘Above 500’ units into a single slab and made it as ‘Above 400 units’. People who consume more than 401 units shall have to pay Rs 8.50.

The Telangana government has agreed to provide subsidy to the tune of Rs 4,227 crore for the two discoms. The discoms had shown the agriculture sector as the main reason for their huge losses but the ERC struck down their figures drastically. While the discoms had put the farm demand at 7,500 MU for the next financial year, the commission trimmed it to 6,300 MU. The agriculture subsidy was put at Rs 2,361 crore.

The Andhra Pradesh government had burdened the people to the extent of Rs 941 crore by making a moderate hike of 5 per cent on all sections of the consumers. The new state of Telangana has reduced the hike to 4.42 per cent from the proposed 4.75 per cent.