Kerala state electricity board planned to hike the charge for consumers that use up to 200 units per month. This charge is double the electricity charge of other states in South India, excluding Karnataka.
Currently, for usage up to 200 units KSEB charges Rs 6.10/ unit. According to the request made by the board to regulatory commission this will be hiked to Rs 6.50.
While charges in Karnataka are the same, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh charges Rs 3.50/unit and Rs 3.60/unit respectively for usage up to 200 units. It should be noted that Kerala produces more electricity at cheaper costs. In Tamil Nadu, where thermoelectricity is the main source of power, first 100 units are free for everyone.
Only those who use above 100 units need to pay. While in Kerala, only the first 50 units are free. If a consumer uses an additional unit, say 51 units in total, they have to pay for the total usage.
The current electricity tariff of KSEB expires today. New tariff will be announced in the coming days.
KSEB also requests to reduce tariff rates for big scale consumers. The board calculates that by cutting down the rates for biggies, they might tend to use more electricity thereby generating more income.
A normal consumer will use more or less the same amount of electricity despite increase or decrease in charges. So the board thinks that the only way to increase income from such people is by increasing the charge.
From 1.22 crores consumers in Kerala, 94,000 people use only under 200 units per month.
Kerala uses around 20,880.70 million units of electricity a year on average. One third of the required electricity is produced from hydro-electric projects. Production cost is Rs 1.20 per unit. Production cost for thermos electricity is way higher, ranging from Rs 3 to 5 per unit. This year, Kerala received more rainfall than expected. However, KSEB says that the same cannot be expected in coming years.
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