DERC may announce new tariff next week
A foreign tourist quenches her thirst on a hot day in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is likely to announce the power tariff for 2010-11 in the next week, which may give the consumers some reprieve from high electricity charges. The DERC is also likely to submit the statutory advice on the new tariff order to the Delhi government in few days before going public with the new rates of power in the city.
The DERC in a letter to the Delhi government has already informed that the new tariff order need to be announced immediately. The independent power regulator had sought the legal opinion of the Solicitor-General of India to clear the controversy triggered after the Delhi government had issued a direction to the DERC not to go public with its new tariff order till the issues raised by the private power distribution companies were examined in all seriousness.
After getting the Solicitor-General’s opinion in its favour, the three member DERC is reportedly awaiting one of its member to arrive from the abroad to announce the new tariff order. The Delhi government on May 4 had directed the DERC to maintain the power tariff to the last year’s level, after it had come to know that the power regulator was making a last minute preparations to announce the new tariff, which would have reportedly cut down the rates by about 20 per cent. The discoms had vociferously opposed such a move on the grounds that they were running into deficit for buying costly power from other states to meet the demands of the capital.
The DERC on the other hand had reportedly taken the stand that the discoms were having healthy profits and their cost of buying power would substantially come down once Delhi becomes power surplus before the Commonwealth Games this year.
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