New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) In a bid to give some relief to the lower strata of people, the Delhi government Monday lowered the power tariff for the first 200 units in the national capital.
According to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), a domestic consumer will now be charged Rs.3.70 per unit for the first 200 units of power, the lowest slab of electricity consumption.
Consumers having monthly usages between 201 to 400 units, however, will now have to shell out 70 paise more per unit -- Rs.5.50 instead of Rs.4.80 earlier. Customers were earlier charged a flat Rs.4.80 for the first 400 units.
For consumption between 400 to 600 units, the tarif has been raised by ten paise a unit -- Rs.6.50 instead of Rs.6.40 earlier.
"We are revising the power rates as per the request of consumers," DERC chairman P.D. Sudhakar told IANS.
The Delhi government announced the lowering of tariff a few hours after India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal led a protest outside the office of BSES, one of Delhi's power utility companies. Kejriwal has been demanding that the hike in power tariff be rolled back.
"We have reduced the power tariff keeping consumers in mind. We don't have anything to say about Kejriwal," Sudhakar said.
Soon after the DERC's announcement, Kejirwal tweeted, "Congrats to the people of Delhi. Electricity rates reduced. But it is a very marginal reduction, more of cosmetic. Struggle wud (would) continue."
The tariff hike hit domestic consumers the hardest as tariff for the segment was hiked the most compared to commercial and industrial categories.