A woman at Salmora village in Majuli sits in her flood-damaged hut. Picture by UB Photos

Silchar, July 6: Mizoram is facing a stiff power hike which is likely to be announced by the government in the last week of this month.

A senior official of the Mizoram power and electricity department in Aizawl said the power tariff is likely to increase by 10.16 per cent.

He said his department has mooted the proposal of charging the domestic consumers in Mizoram using between 1kW and 50kW of power at Rs 10.50 per kW. He added that the consumers using power ranging from 100kW to 200kW and also using more than 201kW would be charged, respectively, at the rate of Rs 25 and Rs 80 per kW.

However, this proposal was resented by a number of organisations and NGOs in the state.

During a public hearing in Aizawl on Wednesday, under the aegis of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Mizoram and adjacent Manipur, the power department faced flak for the proposed power tariff hike.

The Mizoram Upa Pawl, an association of elders and senior citizens, made it clear that such a hike in the power tariff would not be acceptable to them and the general public, as it is untimely and too steep.

H. Bihari Singh, chairman of the regulatory commission, defended the proposal to hike tariff in view of an increase in the price of equipment and high costs of procuring power from private suppliers.

However, the commission of both states appeared unrelenting and insisted that they should come under the umbrella of a revised tariff regime, which would be announced within the next three weeks.

Mizoram is regularly plagued by powercuts. The peak-hour demand in the state is 104MW but the state can only generate 40.7MW.