On the eve of the State Assembly election results, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) announced a steep hike in electricity tariff. The commission on Friday approved an average tariff hike of 70 paise per unit across all categories for the financial year 2023-24 --- the the sharpest increase in recent years.
While 57 paise of the increase will be recovered through fixed charges (FC), 13 paise will be recovered through energy charges (EC). The new tariff rates would be applicable from April. The 8.31% increase is expected to bridge a revenue gap of ₹4,457.12 crore.
“To ensure adequate recovery of fixed costs being incurred by the Escoms, KERC has considered gradual increase in fixed/demand charges to all the category of consumers by reducing the energy charges in respect of HT Industries, HT Commercial, LT Domestic and Commercial categories,” the KERC officials said after the tariff revision. For consumers of other categories, there will be a marginal increase in energy charges.
