TSERC Power utilities pitch for more funds to offset losses

​Hyderabad: Uncertainty over the submission of new power tariff proposals by power utilities before Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) is likely to continue till the government finalises the size of funds it would earmark for power subsidy in 2017-18 financial year.

While the discoms demanded that the funds for power subsidy be increased from Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 8,000 crore, State Finance Department has turned down the plea made by the Energy Department citing funds crunch.

The government has been providing free power to agriculture and subsidised power supply to domestic and some industrial segments. The government has been bearing the burden of subsidy to ensure that discoms are not overburdened.

Top officials of the Energy department told The Hans India that the discoms had been asked not to impose burden on power consumers by abnormal increase of tariff. As per the schedule, the new tariff proposals should be submitted to Telangana Electricity Regulatory Authority (TSERC) by January end . Though the authority did not extend the deadline, the discoms had not yet submitted the proposals.

Officials said that the major challenge before the government is to reduce the mounting financial burden on discoms due to the increased cost of power purchase and non- plan expenditure including salaries in the recent two years.

As per the ARRs filed by the Discoms before the TSERC, the discoms required Rs 22,044.56 crore revenue. The utilities would meet the revenue requirement only when the subsidy amount was doubled. The government is neither accepting the proposal nor allowing them to increase the tariff by at least 15 per cent to bridge the revenue gap.

In the circumstances, the officials claim that the discoms would face nearly Rs 7,000 revenue deficit in the new financial year. The officials said that the issue of the allocation of funds will be decided by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.