Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Board Limit will collect 20 paise as a surcharge per unit of power in August. The surcharge varies every month: in July, it was 18 paise while in June it was 19 paise. As per the Kerala State Regulatory Commission’s order, the KSEB can collect 10 paise per unit as surcharge every month.
The surcharge goes up to 20 paise next month while adding the 10 paise the Board can collect at its own discretion.
In May the regulator had issued an order fixing the power surcharge that can be collected by the KSEB without prior permission from it at 10 paise per unit. If the surcharge is more than 10 paise in any month, a special application must be submitted to the Commission with the detailed accounts of the dues, when three months are completed. The Commission will decide how to collect this due amount after checking the evidence. Earlier, the KSEB had been collecting surcharges under draft rules and used to obtain the Commission’s approval at the end of the year.
As the surcharge varies every month, the rules lately fixed by the regulator state that domestic customers can be levied an average surcharge for two months on their bill issued in two months. This does not apply to those consumers who get their bills on a monthly basis. There is no surcharge for those who only use non-conservative energy (Green tariff). The Commission would notify later how much the Green tariff is.
