The Power Ratan Lal Nath  on Tuesday justified the latest 5 to7% hike in power tariff and said that the state government had no role in this as the question of tariff is decided by the regulatory commission.

Addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon, Nath accompanied by top officials of the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL) said that recently many other states have increased power tariff.

He said that before the latest hike in Tripura the final decision had been taken by the regulatory commission and the government cannot go against this ; there is no other option. He said that power tariff had been increased for the last time in Tripura in the year 2014 and nine years have passed without increase despite the rise in production and other costs.

The TSCEL, once a profit-making government entity, has incurred a total loss of Rs 280 crore during financial years-2021-22 and a loss of Rs 80 crore in the first three months of the current financial year and at present, Tripura has around 10 lakh consumers.

He said that the main reason behind the hike was due to the rise in the cost of gas by around 196 percent over the past few years and around 98 percent of power plants in Tripura are gas-based combined cycle.

Earlier, TSECL used to spend Rs 15 crore for procuring gas per month for running gas-based power generation units but now it has risen to Rs 35-40 crore per month. There is no way rather than going for a power tariff hike, said Nath.

He said that the Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission (TERC) after verifying all aspects has hiked the power tariff at 7%. He said that there is no scope to hike the power tariff secretly and through process, the TERC, after advertisements in newspapers and taking the suggestions of consumers.

The Tripura Electricity Consumer Association, ILS Hospital, DR Br Ambedkar teaching Hospital and four other organizations has raised their objections over the proposed hike power tariff before the commission and after the hearing of State Advisory Committee, the Regulatory Commission has decided to hike the power tariff, which does have any role from the part of state government or from TSECL.

He said that TSECL started its journey in the year 2005 and in 2006; the Regulatory Commission hiked the power tariff. Giving statistics of hiked power tariff in different financial years, Nath said that the power tariff hiked at 46.09% in 2010-11, 7.75 % hike in 2012-13, 40.45 % hike in 2013-14 and in the FY 2014-15 again power tariff hiked at 5.83%, so in total 134% hike registered from the FY 2006-07 to 2014-15, said Nath and added that only 7 percent hike in power tariff has been registered in the regime of present government.

Though, 7% hike in power tariff will be applicable from October 1st, 2023, the consumers , who will pay their bill within 15 days, will get a subsidy of 5% over total bill, said Nath . He said that tea gardens will get a 15% rebate.

Highlighting the developmental activities of TSECL, Nath said that for overall development power system, the state government has opened  a new branch in the name of Tripura Power Transport Regulatory, which look after activities of setting up 33 KV sub-stations, power cut, maintenance of different power sub-stations, appointment process and consumer services etc.

In order to provide seamless power services, the Power department has taken many developmental projects with financial assistance of World Bank, Asian Development Bank, RDSS etc and with these financial support, the department will set up 132 KV, 33 KV sub-stations, laying of under-ground cable, cover conductor cable connections, changes of old transmission line etc.

Nath said also said that Power department and TSECL has taken massive arrangements for seamless power distribution during coming Durga Puja days and TSECL are hoping that this time the peak hour demand will cross 380 MW power and TSECL need 500 MW power in peak hours including distribution of 120 MW power to neighbouring Bangladesh.

During the press meet, the TSECL’s director (Finance) Sarvajit Singh Dogra, general manager (transmission) Ranjan Debbarma and DGM(Commercial) Sujata Sarkar were also present.