DERC hikes power tariff by up to 7 per cent

Power tariff in the national capital was on Thursday night hiked by up to seven per cent by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and will come into effect from Saturday.

The regulator hiked the tariff by levying surcharge heeding to the demands of the three private power distribution companies.

According to the DERC order, the hike will be 7 per cent for consumers of BSES Yamuna Power while BSES Rajdhani customers will have to shell out 4.5 per cent extra on their electricity bills.

The hike for consumers of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd has been fixed at 2.5 per cent.

"We have hiked the tariff to help power distribution companies recover their power purchase cost. The surcharge will be reviewed again in February," DERC chairperson P D Sudhakar told PTI.

BJP, Congress and AAP have strongly criticised the hike.

Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay said the party will raise the issue with Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.

While hiking the power tariff by up to 7.5 per cent for domestic consumers, the DERC in July had withdrawn Power Purchase Adjustment Cost (PPAC) of around 8 per cent till October.

The regulator had introduced PPAC in 2012 to help the private power distribution companies recover additional cost on account of increase in coal and gas prices.

Delhi gets power from a number of gas and coal-based power generation plants.

The private power distribution companies, particularly, BRPL and BYPL, have been demanding significant hike in tariff, citing rise in power purchase cost.