The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved an average tariff rise of about 24% for Tata Power for the fiscal year 2024-25. The revised tariffs are effective from 1 April, 2024.
According to the MERC order, "The present tariff hike is necessitated mainly due to fact that there was under-recovery due to stay on tariff as determined in the MTR Order for FY 2023-24. Had there been no stay, tariff for FY 2024-25 would have resulted in tariff decrease of ~13% than approved by the Commission in MTR Order for FY 2024-25."
This comes after
Tata Power had asked for
a revision in average price tariff by about 12% in bid to recover ₹927 crore arrears. The proposed hike increased the price for consumers using less than 100 units to ₹4.96 per kWh from the earlier price of ₹1.65. On the flipside, the company had proposed a reduction for 500 and above units' consumers to ₹7.94 from the current ₹8.35 per kWh.
At the public hearing organized by MERC, the regulator pulled up the company for targeting its low end consumers and going soft on the high end consumers. The commission also expressed its disappointment for publishing the corrigendum in the newspaper on January 29.
The MERC has cited additional factors like revenue refund and cash discount that have not been considered by the company as the reason to approve almost the double of what the company had asked for in tarrifs.
In response to CNBC-TV18, Tata Power spokesperson said, “MERC has determined the revised tariff of TPC-D for FY 2024-25, resulting in an overall increase due to past approved gaps up to FY 2023-24, to be recovered within FY 2024-25 and remaining within a range of +/- 20% of the average cost of supply.”
The company also said that despite the hike their residential tariff for the 0-100 category remains the lowest, while the 101-300 category is only slightly higher than other private player.
First Published: Mar 7, 2024 3:37 PM IST
