The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has issued formal orders for implementing the revised electricity tariffs and to continue the subsidies offered to various categories of consumers.
The director board of the KSEB issued the orders on the basis of an October 31 interim decision of the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission to revise the power tariffs of the different categories of consumers, including domestic, for an eight-month period from November 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
The subsidies provided to the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category and domestic and agriculture consumers will continue without any change. This includes the tariff for the BPL category domestic consumers with connected load of up to 1,000 watts and up to 40 units of monthly consumption which will remain unchanged at ₹1.50 per unit.
On Monday, the Kerala High Court had suspended for two months a government notification ending the system of permitting the KSEB to retain the electricity duty collected from consumers.
When the KSEB became a company in 2013, it was allowed to retain the electricity duty for a ten-year-period. This period ended on October 31, 2023 requiring it to remit the duty to the government. There was speculation that the subsidies will be hit on account of this development.
The duty payable to the government was being adjusted against the subsidy so far but Electricity Minister K. Krishnankutty had made it clear that the subsidies would not be affected.
As the electricity duty will now be remitted to the government, the latter has to allocate funds to the KSEB to continue funding the subsidies. A proposal submitted by the KSEB in this regard is being examined by the State government.
