Kochi: Kerala Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman Preman Dinaraj has stated that a decision on a power tariff hike would be taken by the end of June.

The commission chairman was speaking after attending a hearing on the KSEB proposal for a power tariff hike.

The hearing was held in connection with the scrutiny of the audited accounts of the KSEB for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21.

The decision on the power tariff hike will be taken after taking into account the audit reports.

It is difficult to say at this stage whether there would be a tariff hike.

A decision will be taken while factoring in the interests of the people, the chairman added.

The entire expenditure of the KSEB is not imposed on the people. KSEB is demanding a hike of 95 paise for 2022-23.

The decision would be taken only after studying the accounts and data placed by the organisations and the public.

The KSEB  also claimed that it has a loss of Rs 741 crore.

However, the HT and EHT Consumers Association has demanded a reduction in tariff citing that the KSEB was having a profit of Rs 550 crore at present.

There was also criticism regarding the demand of KSEB for Rs 300 crore for disbursement of salaries.

The demand not to approve power purchased by the board for Rs 150 crore without the approval of the commission was accepted at the hearing.

Commission member A J Wilson also came for the evidence collection.

Board expecting Rs 1,400 cr profit

Kochi: The KSEB informed that going by the revenue assessment of 2021-22, it is expecting a profit of over Rs 1,400 cr.

However, the audit carried out on the assessment in the previous years suggested that in 2019-20 the KSEB incurred a loss of Rs 269 cr and in 2020-21 this amounted to Rs 1,822 cr.
Once the assessment and appraisal are over it would be subjected to auditing.