The Andhra Pradesh power distribution companies are proposing another power tariff hike with effect from April next year. If the hike is cleared by the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC), Kiran Kumar Reddy will go down in history as one chief minister who hiked electricity tariffs thrice in three years.
Sources said stung by APERC's refusal to allow them to levy fuel surcharge adjustment ( FSA) from customers, the discoms are preparing another round of tariff hike to the tune of Rs 8,488 crore. If the state government offers similar amount of subsidy that it had extended last financial year, the burden on the power consumers would be around Rs 2,200 crore, which would mean a hike of about 10%. For the current financial year, despite a subsidy of Rs 5,530 crore extended by the state, the discoms passed on the burden of Rs 6,500 crore on the consumers which resulted in a 27.8 % hike in tariff.
APTransco chairman and managing director Suresh Chanda submitted the revenue requirement proposals related to transmission of power to the APERC on Saturday. Discoms, which were supposed to have submitted their proposals to APERC by November 30 had sought an extension of one month. They have been given time until December 10. "Discoms will present their proposals by this weekend," said a senior official in the energy department.
According to sources, tariff hike for the next year is likely to be between 10 to 27% for different categories. However, this will be finalized by APERC after it holds public hearings in January 2014.
Although discoms have indicated Rs 11,600-crore revenue gap for the year 2014-15 , the utilities were asked to prune some of their expansion projects to reduce the overall revenue gap. The state government's nonpayment of full subsidy amount to Discoms for supplying free power for agriculture constitutes a major deficit. Consequently , the total losses of the four discoms have now touched an all-time high of Rs 27,000 crore.
AP Generation Corporation (APGenco) also asked for a price revision for the power supplied from its thermal and hydel stations. State owned APGenco supplies more than 60% power to the state at the cost plus method thus reducing the burden on the state exchequer. For the years 2014-19 , APGenco requested APERC a 4% tariff hike citing rising fuel and maintenance costs.
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