more-in A dedicated effort to reduce your energy consumption may benefit you in more ways than one; not only will your electricity bill be modest, but there may also be a hidden reward in it if you look carefully. The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has sought the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (KERC) nod to implement separate tariffs for domestic consumers falling under different slabs. In its amended petition for a revision in tariff for the coming financial year, the power utility has proposed a ‘telescopic tariff’ for domestic consumers. There are two angles to this, according to Bescom’s petition — flattening the purse of the rich and protecting the interests of the poor, while encouraging consumers to conserve energy. What it proposes to do is to have different tariffs for people who keep their consumption under 200 units a month. “The electricity bill of poor and middle-class consumers (consumption between 50 and 100 units) who consume less pay more than affluent consumers who consume an excessive quantity of electricity. The electricity tariff should be formulated in such a way that the rich should bear the increase in electricity cost,” the amended proposal says, adding that the higher tariff could push more consumers towards self-generation of power. R.C. Chetan, director (finance), Bescom, said: “Even with air-conditioners and refrigerators, the consumption can be less than 200 units if energy-efficient equipment is used.” The tariff proposed seeks to limit the energy charges to ?3.6 for the first 30 units — which is much lesser than the rate of ?4.48 that was the charge according to Bescom’s earlier proposal to KERC. Furthermore, consumers will be charged ?5.3 for 31 to 100 units of consumption, and ?7.1 for 101 to 200 units. People whose consumption is between 201 and 300 units will be charged ?6.4 uniformly for all units (from 1 to 300); it will be ?6.9 a unit for consumption of 301 to 400, ?7.2 for 401 to 500 units, and ?7.5 for consumption above 500 units. The bid to encourage consumers to adopt energy-efficient equipment is not limited to domestic consumers; it has been extended to public lighting as well by incentivising usage of LED lights and doubling the energy charges for non-usage of LED bulbs.

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