Proposed tariff revisions of Bescom will benefit most domestic and HT consumers; high consumption might lead to higher bills 

Neither the hike nor the reduction will reflect in the bills until the beginning of the next financial year, April 2023 

In the backdrop of Energy Minister V. Sunil Kumar’s announcement of providing some relief to electricity consumers in the State by reducing tariffs, sources in the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) revealed that they have asked for reduction of tariffs under certain categories in the proposal they have submitted to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) for tariff revision for the next financial year beginning in April 2023.

However, even though it is an election year, it is not all good news as the revised tariffs might pinch the pockets of high-consumption customers.  

“For certain categories, we have proposed a reduction and for some, we have proposed an increase. We have not completely reduced rates for everyone. We have asked for energy charges to be reduced for both domestic as well as High Tension (HT) consumers, but for those whose consumption is more (more than 100 units for domestic customers), the charges will proportionately go up,” said an official of Bescom.  

Bescom officials agreed that reducing the tariff would bring in losses for the company. However, to bridge the gap between cost to supply and the incoming revenue, it has been proposed that while only commercial and industrial HT consumers were paying cross subsidy surcharges (CSS) before, from next year, even high-consuming domestic consumers should see CSS in their electricity bills.  

“Since most HT customers who consume above 1 megawatt of power opt to buy electricity from open sources in the market, we have worked out to bring the rates down to ₹6.6 per unit by cutting down energy charges to bring them back to the grid. If they opt for open sources, then we do not get our expected revenue and it will be difficult to bridge the losses,” a senior Bescom official explained.

They further said that with the new rates, buying power from open sources would prove to be a costlier affair due to additional wire charges and such.   

Senior officials also said that assessing the current work-from-home situation, the proposal also contains certain revisions like reducing the charges for the slab between 0–50 units as most of these customers are recording zero consumption.