New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday strongly justified the 22 per cent hike in electricity tariff saying it was necessary in view of increase in power purchase cost even as several Congress MLAs slammed the decision and demanded a rollback.
At a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party in New Delhi, several party MLAs, including Mukesh Sharma and Subhash Chopra, criticised the hike when people are "reeling under spiralling prices of essential commodities and vegetables."
"The hike should be rolled back immediately," said Uttam Nagar MLA Sharma. Senior party leader Chopra also slammed the move, saying it would put more burden on the common man.
However, Dikshit defended the decision of city's power regulator DERC to hike the tariff saying power purchase cost has increased significantly in the last few years while there has been no hike in tariff in the past five years in Delhi.
"The tariff has been hiked after five years. In the last few years rates of fuel have increased by 100 per cent. The rates of gas, oil and LPG have all increased significantly," she told later.
The Chief Minister said in spite of nearly 22 per cent hike, the power tariff in Delhi is still much less than Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and all the neighbouring states as well as metropolis barring Mumbai.
"In spite of raising the tariff by 22 per cent, our rates are still less than Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states. In fact it is less than all other metropolitan cities excluding Mumbai," she said.
As per the new rates, a domestic consumer will be charged Rs 3 per unit for first 200 units of power instead of current Rs 2.45.
The rate for per unit of power has been increased to Rs 4.80 from the current Rs 3.95 per unit for usages between next 200 unit to 400 unit while Rs 5.70 per unit will be charged instead of current Rs 4.65 for usages beyond 400 unit.
Similar hikes have been effected for commercial as well as other categories of consumers also.
The new rates, announced today after a prolonged controversy, will come into effect from September one.
The last substantial hike was effected in 2005 while a minor increase of five paisa per unit for domestic consumers was implemented in 2008.
Announcing the new tariff, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman P D Sudhakar yesterday had said the hike was necessary as power sector is not insulated from inflation and other market parameters.
The BJP and several RWAs have criticised the hike and threatened to launch agitation if the increase was not rolled back.
Private discoms, however, welcomed the move saying the increase was necessary as power purchase cost has gone up significantly.
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