New Delhi: Indicating a substantial hike in power tariff, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday said power regulator DERC will have to take a realistic view of the situation while finalising the new rates.
Delhi has been reeling under severe outages for last four days after state-run NHPC cut supply of 200 MW power to BSES for failing to pay up dues of over Rs 225 crore while another generation firm Damodar Valley Corporation has threatened to stop 280 MW supply to the discom if it did not make payment of around Rs 330 crore.
"We are waiting for the DERC to announce the (tariff) order. Everybody knows about the situation. I hope the decision of the regulatory body will be based on realistic view of the current situation," Dikshit said when asked about the power situation in the city.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is likely to announce the new power tariff in a day or two. The regulator in August last year had hiked the tariff by 22 per cent hike for all categories of consumers.
The tariff was hiked by five per cent in February and by upto two per cent in May to adjust the power purchase cost of the distribution companies.
Justifying demand by the private discoms to hike the tariff, Dikshit said cost of power has increased significantly in the last few years and the new rates will have to be finalised taking into consideration the ground realities.
Pragati Power Corporation Ltd (PPCL) and Indraprastha Power Generation Corporation Ltd (IPGCL), the two power generation companies of Delhi government, had also last week told BSES to clear their dues of around Rs 1,300 crore. These two companies supply around 330 mega watt of power to BSES.
Citing fund crunch, Tata-backed discom TPDDL earlier this month had requested the Delhi government to help it financially by injecting a fresh equity of Rs 245 crore on the lines of similar assistance provided to BSES in January.
PTI
