(ET)
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has decided against approaching the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) to raise electricity charges. Electricity users will not be burdened further with the rising costs of electricity generation and distribution, the state government said on Tuesday.
Energy minister Saurabh Patel said Gujarat expects Rs 51,507 crore from the consumers during 2020-21 for 87,824 million units of electricity according to the current approved electricity tariff. To compensate the deficit of Rs 882-crore, there needed to be an additional cost of Rs 0.13 per unit for consumers, but this will not be levied, the minister said.
Patel said the state government decided to instead minimize its losses by improving efficiency in generation and distribution. He said Gujarat is the first state in India to not ask to raise the electricity tariff for several years, although consumption of subsidized energy is increasing every year. Patel said the state government has also decided to charge a uniform tariff for all two lakh agricultural consumers.
