By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 25, 2016 : The Odisha government on Monday allayed fears of a further hike in the power tariff.

Three State-owned companies have filed the revision petionts before the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) raising the apprehension of a possible upward revision of power tariff.

“The Commission has already announced the tariff for the current financial year. The State Government’s stand on the tariff will be the same and there is no possibility of tariff hike in near future,” energy principal secretary, Rajesh Verma told reporters.

The regulatory commission is likely to take up the revision petitions of Grid Corporation of Odisha Limited (Gridco) on Tuesday, Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) for hearing.

Filing its annual revenue requirement (ARR) application for the first time, OPGC had demanded higher generation tariff for 2016-17. Similarly, OHPC urged OERC to approve an average cost of `1.43 per unit against 82.57 paise per unit approved by the Commission for 2015-16.

However, Gridco had opposed the higher tariff demanded by both the power generating companies of the State Government. In a major relief to consumers, the Commission had kept the tariff unchanged for the current fiscal.

The Odisha State Electricity Consumers’ Federation has decided to stage demonstration outside OERC office to protest against any further hike in tariff, said convener Rabi Behera.