Electricity Minister K. Krishnankutty reiterated on Thursday that the State had opposed the Centre’s decision to allow electricity distribution companies (Discoms) to automatically collect surcharge on a monthly basis from consumers.
Fuel surcharge collected through consumer bills is in the news with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) preparing to collect a total of 19 paise per unit in June due to the over-lapping of two decisions taken in accordance with the old and amended regulations governing fuel price adjustment surcharge.
Mr. Krishnankutty pointed out that after the Centre notified the rules, Kerala had set a model by fixing 10 paise per unit as the maximum monthly surcharge that can be imposed on power bills.
Mr. Krishnankutty explained that the KSEB had decided to collect 10 paise as surcharge in June in accordance with regulations amended to incorporate provisions of the centre’s Electricity (Amendment) Rules, 2022, which allow discoms to automatically collect surcharge.
This surcharge is meant to recover KSEB’s additional expenditure on power purchases in April 2023, and will be applicable for June. Under the amended regulation which is applicable for power purchases made after March 31, 2023, discoms do not require prior approval of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to collect the surcharge.
Meanwhile, the commission has also allowed, applying the older regulation, the KSEB to collect 9 paise per unit as surcharge for expenditures related to the power purchases in the second and third quarters of 2022-23, the Minister said.
Compared to several states, Kerala has a lower rate of fuel surcharge that is applicable to electricity consumers at the moment, according to a set of data released by the Minister’s office on Thursday.
While 19 paise per unit will be collected as surcharge in Kerala in June, Rajasthan has 45 paise with May-July as the recovery period, Gujarat 310 paise for April-June and Chattisgarh 43 paise for April-May. Andhra Pradesh has 21 paise for June and Haryana, 52 paise for April-June, according to a statement issued by Mr. Krishnankutty’s office.
