Power tariff hike by UP government will burn hole in consumers' pockets.
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While people are still coping up with the inflation, the latest hike in power tariff has come down heavily in their pockets. This decision of Uttar Pradesh government has miffed many residents.
“Our monthly budget is going to suffer. We will have to reduce our expenditure to cope up with this shock,” told Sridevi Vinayak, a resident of GC Centrum, a housing society in Indirapuram.
The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) gave a shock to the consumers by increasing power tariff by 8-12 per cent. While UPERC has abolished the regulatory surcharge of 4.8 per cent for state discoms, the actual hike in power tariff after deducting the regulatory surcharge stands between 3.72 per cent to 7.72 per cent.
The tariff rate has been increased in various slabs. Power tariff for the consumption of electricity for the first 150 units has increased from Rs. 4.90 per unit to Rs. 5.50 per unit, while for 151-300 units, the tariff rates have increased to Rs. 6 per unit from Rs. 5.40 per unit. Consuming electricity between 301 and 500 units will require you to pay Rs. 6.50 per unit instead of Rs. 6.20. Tariff rate for consuming electricity above 500 units has been raised to Rs. 7 per unit from Rs. 6.50.
As if the increase in power tariff was not enough, the incessant power cuts in Ghaziabad happening for the last few days has added more to peoples' woes. During the power cut, the residents are forced to use power back-up and pay triple the rate. Despite the government announcing the city to be power outage-free by the end of this year, power cut is still happening.
“Before increasing the power tariff rates, the government should have ensured that no power cut happens. The increase in power tariff rate has already put a burden on us and on the top of it the incessant power cut is creating more problem,” said Shubham Srivastava, a resident of River Heights, Raj Nagar Extension.
The latest move has also discouraged the residents from changing their individual power connection to a multipoint connection. “We thought that changing into multipoint connection will allow us to save a little money but our hopes are dashed after the increase in electricity charges,” said Awdesh Tyagi, a resident of Indirapuram society.
However, the latest rise will not affect the residents who have converted from individual connection to a multipoint connection. The builder will anyway hike power rates in highrises after the latest increase by UPERC.
