55% power tariff hike in Bihar

The Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Saturday approved an overall 55 per cent tariff hike for 2017-18 fiscal. "The new power tariff will be effective from April 1, 2017," the BERC said in a press statement here.

"The commission has approved an overall increase of about 55 per cent only without taking subsidy into consideration. However, if the state government extends subsidy support to BPL and rural consumers as agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding of UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) this increase may come down to around 28 per cent," the statement said.

The BERC said "while increasing the tariff rates for 2017-18, the commission compared the existing tariff rates of neighbouring states with that of Bihar and took into account the overall improvement in supply of electricity and other related services in both urban and rural areas in recent years."