By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 22, 2018: Power consumers in the State have something to cheer about. The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC), the State’s electricity regulator, on Thursday announced no hike in power tariff for 2018-19.

OERC’s Director (Regulatory Affairs) Priyabrat Patnaik confirmed the news to reporters here after rejecting proposals of power generation and distribution companies to increase power tariffs.

“The power tariff will remain unchanged for domestic consumers, commercial and industrial units for this year,” Patnaik added saying that 1% rebate over and above the normal rebate if consumers pay through online.

The Commission’s decision on holding the tariff hike for the year is apparently not to put extra burden on consumers.

The power tariff for domestic consumers having consumption upto 50 units has remained unchanged at Rs 2.50 paise per unit.

Various consumer forums and political parties urged the OERC not to accept the proposals of power generation and distribution companies to increase power tariffs.

Two power generation companies—Odisha Hydropower Corporation (OHPC) and Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC)—kept their views before the commission. Both of these companies urged the OERC to hike power tariff.

Similarly, power distribution companies such as Gridco, OPTCL, CLDC, Cesu, Nesco, Wesco, Southco had been demanding tariff hike citing increase in infrastructure cost.

The Commission also attributed losses by the distribution companies to poor management and transmission losses.

Last year, the OERC last year hiked of 10 paise per unit in electricity tariff for 2017-18. The Commission has fixed the tariff at Rs 2.50 per unit for the first 50 units, Rs 4.30 per unit for consumption above 50 units upto 200 units, Rs 5.30 per unit for consumption above 200 to 400 units and Rs 5.70 per unit for consumption above 400 units.