GESCOM seeks transfer of ‘financial burden’ to consumers by hiking power tariffs

February 18, 2024 02:30 pm | Updated 02:30 pm IST - KALABURAGI Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited submitted its Annual Performance Review for 2022-23 to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission in November last year and sought the latter’s permission to hike power tariffs by 163 paise per unit across all category of consumers for 2024-25 to fill the expenditure-revenue gap of ₹1592.40 crore expected for the year. Instead of collecting the energy subsidies and Ganga Kalyan dues from the government and the government-owned corporations, they allege, the GESCOM is simply transferring the financial burden to consumers who sincerely pay their power bills. As per the information collected by The Hindu, the government is yet to pay ₹1400.44 crore energy subsidy dues to GESCOM for supplying the power to farmers’ irrigation pump sets. If calculated at just 12% per annum, the GESCOM will have to receive an additional ₹1821.75 crore from the government as the interest for the energy subsidy dues for supplying power to irrigation pump sets and ₹411.353 crore from different State-owned development corporations as interest for implementing the Ganga Kalyan scheme.