Thiruvananthapuram: Power tariff in Kerala is set for another hike almost half a year after the last upward revision.
Kerala’s Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty has indicated that power tariff would go up for domestic and agricultural consumers in the state soon.
“A recent Central Government directive which says that consumers who use more than 100 kilowatts of power should purchase green electricity from the common market would cause losses to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). In order to recoup this loss, KSEB will be forced to announce a tariff hike for domestic and agricultural connections,” the Minister explained.
Earlier, the Central Power Ministry had released draft rules related to power consumption.
Subsequently, Kerala informed the Centre that the state should be allowed to collect cross-subsidy surcharge, additional surcharge, grid support charge and banking charge from consumers purchasing electricity directly from the common grid to make up for the anticipated losses for the KSEB.
However, when the final rules were announced, only cross-subsidy was allowed. “KSEB’s losses cannot be recovered with cross-subsidy alone,” said the Minister.
The current tariffs came into effect on June 26.
Other plans
Krishnankutty also said that 1,875 km of disused power lines under the KSEB would be changed in the coming five years under Dyuthi 2 project.
Meanwhile, KSEB has been directed by the state government to conduct a study and file a report on enforcing a different tariff on electricity consumed during peak hours, the Minister added.
