Telangana Power Consumers to Pay ₹5,420 Crore in True-Up Charges

The Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (TGERC) has permitted the state’s two power distribution companies (DISCOMs) to collect ₹5,420.23 crore from non-agricultural electricity consumers as true-up charges. The DISCOMs had sought approval to recover a total of ₹7,635.22 crore, comprising additional power purchase expenditure incurred during 2022-23 and the revenue deficit for 2023-24. After conducting a public hearing, the commission directed that ₹2,214.99 crore related to the agricultural sector should be recovered from the state government, while the remaining amount should be collected from non-agricultural consumers. The decision comes after the commission kept the petitions pending following the state government’s request in March and subsequently issued final orders in light of a recent Supreme Court judgment.

The recovery will begin with electricity bills issued from next month. Consumers under Southern Telangana Power Distribution Company will pay the charges for 29 months, while those under Northern Telangana Power Distribution Company will pay them for 26 months. The first month’s bill will include a charge of 30 paise per unit, followed by 50 paise per unit from the subsequent month. Agricultural consumers will not be directly charged because of the free-power scheme, with the DISCOMs directed to seek the agricultural-sector amount from the state government. TGERC has also instructed DISCOMs to separately mention the true-up charge, applicable financial year, monthly consumption and per-unit rate on every bill. True-up charges are levied to recover the gap arising from higher-than-approved power purchase costs or lower-than-estimated revenue.