Shimla
The new tariff of electricity in Himachal Pradesh will come by March 20. This time, the Electricity Regulatory Commission will release the tariff about ten days in advance so that the new tariff can be implemented on time. The state government has made all efforts to make electricity cheaper, and the Electricity Board has put its side there according to the instructions received from the government. The tour of the talks that was to be held between the Electricity Board and the Regulatory Commission has been completed, and the latest information has been sought from the Board. It is believed that this time there will not be much burden on domestic consumers.
According to sources, the industrialists of the state have given their memorandum separately to the Electricity Regulatory Commission and have told some facts to the Commission and said that their electricity rates should be reduced this time than before. In this direction, the Electricity Board has also made a provision so that there is not much burden on the industries, but still, in many cases, the industrialists feel that they are being burdened. They had raised their issue with the government and have got full assurance from the government, but the decision has to be taken by the Regulatory Commission and the Regulatory Commission believes that it is its job to maintain a balance between all sections. It is not that the entire burden should be put on commercial activity.
The board has submitted a revised draft of a reduction of Rs 271 crore (69 lakh) in its annual revenue requirement petition to the Electricity Regulatory Commission. After this reduction, it is certain that electricity prices will not increase in Himachal Pradesh, and next year either the current rates will remain or there may be a further reduction. People will definitely suffer some loss due to the subsidy being stopped.
According to the revised petition, for the next financial year, the board has kept the annual revenue requirement from the commission at Rs 8970.59 crore instead of Rs 9242.28 crore. This has been reduced by Rs 271 crore. This has happened due to many reasons, including the government saying that it will give a corpus fund to the board. This will be a fund of Rs 100 crore and apart from this, the government has also said that it will take some liabilities on itself. The government is trying to reduce the burden by putting the posts of surplus employees in the surplus pool.
