Goa’s middle class would pay less power tariff from April
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 09 March 2016 21:17 IST
There is a good news for the middle class and above of Goa. They would probably pay less for the electricity consumption from April onwards for household usage.
The probability factor is because the recommendations in this regard made by the Goa government have to be approved by centrally controlled Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Also, no electricity consumer would pay minimum monthly charges for the electrical connection, but only for the actual consumption.
However, the government would recover this amount by charging more to the commercial and industrial establishments, including the ports of Goa.
Goa treasury would be richer by Rs 77 crore if the proposal is approved, states the petition published by the electricity department on its website.
A public hearing was held today on all the proposals made by the state government, in the presence JEC officials.
“Instead of the four slabs existing for Goa’s 4.68 lakh domestic households, we have now proposed six slabs, providing relief to the houses using power up to 500 units per month”, Chief Electrical Engineer Deepak Bhojekar told goanews.com.
Goa has split and proposed two new slabs with power tariff of Rs 2.40 instead of Rs 3.10 for 201 to 300 units. It would be Rs 3.10 per unit from 300 to 400 units.
Similarly, the houses would pay Rs 3.20 instead of Rs 3.60 per unit between 401 to 500 units while Rs 3.60 would be charged for the units above 500 units.
All other tariff including the lowest two slabs, 0 to 100 units and 101 to 200 units would remain the same. The lowest tariff charged for the lower middle class of Goa is Rs 1.30 and Rs 1.90 per unit in these two slabs respectively.
The educational institutions would also benefit from this proposal as the state government has proposed to separate it from the commercial slab.
“Instead of Rs 4.40 per unit, the educational institutes would now pay Rs 3.50 per unit for the first 1000 units and Rs 4.00 for above 1000 units”, said Bhojekar.
TARIFF HIKE FOR INDUSTRY
The highest amount of tariff would be now charged for hoardings and sign boards at all the public places, Rs 2.10 more, from Rs 6.90 to Rs 9 per unit.
The state government has also proposed two new slabs, for the ports as well as allied agricultural activities, with the introduction of new tariff rates.
For Low Tension connections in allied agricultural sector, the fixed charges would be Rs 20 with a tariff of Rs 2.10 per unit.
The same tariff for the High Tension connections in allied agricultural sector would be Rs 2.25 per unit with fixed charges of Rs 150 per month.
All the ports, including the MPT, would be now charged tariff of Rs 7 per unit, with fixed charges of Rs 250.
The power department has however proposed major hike in tariff in the High Tension section, which primarily deals with industrial and commercial sector.
The industrial sector of HT, including power intensive industries, would pay Rs 4.20 instead of Rs 3.80 per unit while the HT commercial sector would pay Rs 5.50 instead of Rs 4.40 per unit.
Defence establishments would also be charged now Rs 5 per unit, instead of Rs 3.70 per unit
