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Electricity rates in Ladakh to go up soon?

The power tariff in Ladakh is likely to be hiked as Power Development Department in Ladakh has suggested a tariff hike. PDD in Ladakh has suggested an average tariff hike of 14.66% during current financial year. Department is mulling to do so due to increasing revenue gap.

In a tariff petition filed before the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for the UTs of J&K and Ladakh, the Power Development Department of the Ladakh UT has mentioned that there was a gap of Rs 4223.28 crore between the aggregate revenue requirement and revenue available during the financial year 2019-20 and this gap increased to Rs 9079.20 crore during the financial year 2020-21 when Rs 5020.20 crore revenue was available against aggregate revenue requirement of Rs 14099.40 crore.

The gap between aggregate revenue requirement and revenue available during the 2021-22 further increased to Rs 10513.67 crore. In order to cover the gap, PDD has suggested an average tariff hike.

Currently, PDD charges Rs 1.69 per unit up to 100 units monthly and Rs 2.20 per unit for units between 101 and 200 per month. However, it has proposed Rs 2 per unit for units up to 200 per month. Against Rs 3.30 per unit for units between 201 and 400 per month being charged currently, the PDD has proposed Rs 4 per unit for units between 201 and 400 while as against Rs 3.52 per unit for units more than 400 per month, the department has proposed Rs 5 per unit for units more than 400 per month in the tariff petition. Moreover, fixed charges have been proposed to be increased from Rs 5.50 per month to Rs 15 per month.

As far as non-domestic/commercial category of consumers are concerned, at present the tariff for units up to 100 per month is Rs 2.81 per unit and Rs 2.97 per unit for units between 101 and 200 per month. However, it has proposed Rs 3.50 per unit for units up to 200 per month. Similarly, it has proposed Rs 5 per unit for units between 201 and 500 per month as against Rs 2.97 per unit for units between 101 to 200 and Rs 4.29 per unit for units between 201 and 300 per month, as per Daily Excelsior.

For different categories of un-metered consumers, the PDD has proposed hike from Rs 99 per month to Rs 200 per month, from Rs 325 per month to Rs 400 per month, from Rs 490 per month to Rs 600 per month and from Rs 650 per month to Rs 800 per month.

Also, the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) and distribution losses are still on the higher side which is alarming.