AIZAWL: The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the states of Mizoram and Manipur has hiked power tariffs for Mizoram by an average of 6.78 per cent per unit for all categories of consumers from the existing rate, an official of the state power and electricity department said on Monday.
The new power tariff will come into effect from April 1, the official said.
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Earlier, the department has sought a 21.08 per cent hike and urged the JERC to fix the Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) for the financial year 2022-2023 at Rs.751.52 crore, he said.
The JERC conducted a public hearing on March 3 during which at least 10 complaints from groups and individuals and the responses given by the power and electricity department were heard, he said.
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After assessing the monetary requirement of the department, the JERC fixed the ARR at Rs. 512.65 crore, while the state government has also promised to give Rs 109.22 crore subsidy to the power and electricity department to meet its ARR, he said.
Apart from the Rs 109.22 crore subsidy and Rs.17.77 crore revenue, which is expected from surplus power to be sold outside the state, the department still requires Rs. Rs.385.66 crore to meet its ARR of Rs 512.65 crore for the new fiscal, which necessitated a hike by 6.78 per cent per unit on average for all consumers, the official said.
He said that the department’s annual revenue will increase to Rs 24.50 crore more after the hike.
As per the new power tariff, the power per unit rate would increase to Rs. 7.79 from the existing Rs 7.30 per unit, he said.
The power bill of those households, which consume 100 unit in a month, would increase by Rs 10, Rs. 170 for 200 units consuming families and Rs 285 for well-to-do families, which consume 250 units in a month when the new tariff comes into force, the official said.
Tariff for the fixed charge has not been raised except for domestic (households), he said.
According to the official, Mizoram is expected to have 661.54 million units (MU) of electricity during fiscal 2022-2023, of which 494.99 MU is expected to be consumed by domestic or household consumers.
The state is expected to have a 46.87 MU surplus after deduction of transmission and distribution losses, he said.
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The distribution loss is estimated at 17.83 per cent and transmission loss at 2 per cent, he said.
According to the power and electricity department, the total number of consumers in the state is estimated to be 2,92,087, of which 2,67,272 are domestic consumers.
The number of Kutir Jyoti (KJ) consumers is believed to be about 21,818, it said.