Gas price up by 196 pc, Tripura electricity corp seeks tariff hike

Agartala, May 20 (PTI) Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd has submitted a representation to the state regulatory commission, seeking a hike in power tariff to bridge its revenue gap, a senior official said on Saturday.

There has been “no tariff increase” in Tripura since 2014, causing a “huge loss to the state government-run power corporation”, he said.

“There has been an average 196 per cent increase in natural gas price in the past one year and the introduction of uniform transmission cost has hit the corporation’s fiscal position.

“While the uniform transmission cost appears good for big states like Assam, it harms small states such as Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram,” TSECL Managing Director Debasish Sarkar told PTI.

The corporation will have a revenue gap of Rs 1,100.60 crore if the tariff remains unchanged for the 2023-24 financial year, he said.

“Projected revenue stands at Rs 868.04 crore for 2023-24, while TSECL needs to spend Rs 1,968.64 crore for the current fiscal, leading to a gap of Rs 1,100.60 crore,” he pointed out.

The TSECL has already given dearness allowance to its employees, and this has increased its non-plan expenditure, Sarkar said, adding that it also provides subsidy in tariff for greenfield industries.

Due to an “abnormal” hike in the gas price, the production cost in its Rukhia power generation plant has gone up to Rs 7 per unit, which was merely at 2.50 per unit, he said.

In the northeastern state, almost all the power plants are fuelled by natural gas.

“We have explained our position before the Tripura State Regulatory Commission through representation as to why a tariff hike is inevitable. Now, it will be the regulatory body to determine the percentage of power tariff hike to make it a win-win situation for all stakeholders”, he said.

Last time, the power tariff in Tripura was hiked in 2014, and it was not revised during the BJP-IPFT regime.