Revenue surplus PSPCL proposes meagre tariff hike for 2025-26

Power consumers are in for a major relief as Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has envisaged only a minimal increase in tariff for 2025-26. The PSPCL, which has a surplus of Rs 2,528 crore against net revenue requirement of...

Aman Sood

Patiala, Updated At : 04:00 AM Dec 14, 2024 IST

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) during a special checking drive carried out on Saturday in five zones — Amritsar, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala — has detected 2,075 cases of power theft and a penalty of Rs 4.64 crore has been imposed on the erring consumers. - File photo

The PSPCL filed their petition with the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for annual revenue requirement (ARR) for 2025-26 in November. The PSERC would analyse and apply stringent checks on the submission of the PSPCL and would decide the tariff before March 31, 2025.

According to the ARR, the PSPCL has proposed a hike of 10 per cent, which is the lowest in the past 15 years.

Officials at the power corporation attribute the cause for the lowest hike to the improvement in financial situation of the PSPCL during the current financial year.

As per the submissions, there would be a surplus of Rs 2,528 crore against net revenue requirement of Rs 47,916 crore from 2025-26.

The revenue from sale of power has been assessed at Rs 50,445 crore. The total revenue requirement is Rs 48,961 crore with less non-tariff income of Rs 1,065 crore. However, the cumulative deficit of the PSPCL is Rs 5,091 crore.

The power purchase cost is the major component of expenditure at Rs 30,555 crore. The employee cost is Rs 7,453 crore. The fuel cost for thermal plants is Rs 3,804 crore.

The total estimated subsidy for 2025-26 is Rs 20,433 crore, comprising Rs 10,413 crore for agriculture, Rs 6,860 crore for domestic and Rs 3,159 crore for industry.

A senior PSPCL official said there was an increase in agriculture, domestic and industrial consumption by 20, 11 and 11 per cent, respectively, which resulted in Rs 2,291 crore jump in subsidy from Rs 10,907 crore ending September 2023 to Rs 13,198 crore ending September 2024.

“The AAP government which paid full subsidy during first two years has failed to pay full subsidy for the current year. The government has to pay Rs 6,000 crore in December to clear the subsidy,” added the official. “Further, cumulative deficit has reduced from Rs 7,619 crore to Rs 5,091 crore,” he added.

As per the PSPCL’s data, maximum increase of 61 per cent was sought during 2014-15 and 60 per cent in 2016-17. However, after scrutiny, the PSERC approved the hike, which was not even 30 per cent.