Power reforms trip: Tariffs still a sore point with states
Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are among the states that announced higher rates for 2017-18. Bihar led with a 20 per cent rise, across brackets. It, however, also introduced direct subsidy transfer for some sections of consumers, thereby reducing the impact on the revenue of power distribution companies (discoms). Jharkhand's raise was 12 per cent, Madhya Pradesh's 9.5 per cent and Karnataka raised by 8.1 per cent. The central government's programme for debt restructuring of state discoms underlines the need for regular rate revision. Ratings agency ICRA says the overall subsidy dependence of discoms for 2017-18 would be Rs 81,000 crore, an increase of around eight per cent over the previous year. "The increase in the subsidy requirement is predominantly driven by first, the subsidy, and concessional tariff (rate) announcements in states and/or continuation of the subsidised nature of tariffs by state governments for certain consumer categories," says Sabyasachi...21-07-2017