Power tariff in Tamil Nadu rises

• 12 years ago (2012-03-31)
• David Flin

North America 998

---

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has seen an average 37 percent increase in power tariff, effective from today. The revised power tariff was announced by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC), and it estimates that it will fetch the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) an additional revenue of around $1.5 billion, enabling it to come out of the red in the next fiscal year.

The new tariffs increases rates for high tension consumers by around 25 percent, and for low tension consumers by around 45 percent. The rates for domestic consumers have been increased to $0.05 per unit up to 100 units for bi-monthly consumption, with the state government providing a subsidy of $0.03 per unit. For households consuming 100-200 units bi-monthly, the new rate is $0.055 per unit, of which the subsidy from the state will be $0.02 per unit. For households consuming up to 500 units bi-monthly, the rate per unit for the first 200 units is $0.059, and above that, it will be $0.078 per unit.

The state power regulator has allowed at fixed charge ranging between $0.20 and $0.39, depending on usage. However, the monthly minimum charge has been abolished.