By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
In the new tariffs announced by the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC), HT industries, Hotels and restaurants remained major beneficiaries in the hill state.
For higher load factor of above 50%, tariff of HT Industries has been reduced from Rs. 6.85 to Rs. 6.60, said Pankaj Gupta, President of the Indian Industries Association (IAU).
In a relief to consumers, the UERC on Tuesday proposed no tariff hike for the year 2026-27 for consumers of domestic, non-domestic and industries.
Official sources said the relief is also being linked to the assembly elections which are likely to be held early next year.
“The Commission has approved no tariff hike as against the tariff hike proposed by UPCL of about 17.40% and overall tariff hike proposed of 18.86%, considering the claims of UJVNL and PTCUL,” the UERC said in a statement.
In order to rationalise the tariff structure, the Commission has modified the tariff of some of the categories. While approving the tariffs for different category of consumers, the Commission has ensured to retain the cross-subsidy levels within the range of +/- 20% for almost all of the consumer categories as specified in the National Tariff Policy.
“This is a good decision. In our petition, we have urged the UERC not to hike tariffs for both HT and LT industries,” said Gupta.
As per proposal submitted by UPCL Tariff hike was proposed at 17.4%, Gupta said officer bearers of IAU fought against this as abnormal increase by submitting written submissions, participating in public hearing and in advisory committee meeting of UERC.
“We are pleased to inform that due to our efforts, no tariff increase has been done this year,” Gupta claimed.
IAU’s suggestions which have been accepted:
- For higher load factor of above 50% tariff of HT Industries has been reduced from Rs. 6.85 to Rs. 6.60
- Rate of continuous supply surcharge has been reduced from 15% to 7.5%
- Solar hour rebate has been introduced at 22.5% for load above 25 Kw from 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM
- Seasonal Consumer- Hotel & Restaurant tariff has been introduced.
- Further more details are annexed as Press Note here.