Bhubaneswar: Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) on Thursday made it clear that that would be no hike in power tariff in 2019-19.

The retail supply tariff for 2018-19 remains unaltered, the OERC, a quasi-judicial body, said in its order. Last year the OERC had hiked the tariff by 1.44 per cent.

OERC director (regulatory affairs) Priyabrata Patnaik said: "There is no change in metre rent too. We have issued order that no distribution companies can deny a new low tension supply connection up to five kilowatt (KW) on the plea of non-availability of transformer capacity."

The OERC has also given some benefits to the consumers who pay their dues on time.

"If a consumer pays the bill for all the 12 months of a financial year consistently without fail within due date, the consumer will get an additional bonus rebate in the last month. The amount of rebate will be equal to the rebate of the month of March for timely payment of bill."

Patnaik said the consumers who pay their dues through digital means will also get one per cent rebate over and above the normal rebate. At present, domestic consumers pay Rs 2.50 per unit for using up to 50 units of power. The consumers in the slab of 51 to 200 units pay Rs 4.20 per unit. The rate is Rs 5.20 per unit for those consuming between 200 and 400 units and Rs 5.60 for those consuming above 400 units.

On being asked how the authority managed to convince the power distribution companies not to hike tariff, Patnaik said: "We asked them to take state's full share from the three independent power producers (IPP) - Vedanta Group, Jindal India Thermal Power and GMR Energy. We have approved full state share of power from the state IPPs for state consumption. Otherwise, power purchase cost would have been much higher on account of purchase of high cost power from NTPC stations. The cost of power per unit from the IPP will be at least Re 1 less compared to the power purchase from Central PSUs such as NTPC. With this, they can manage their loss substantially."

The OERC has also asked the companies to reduce their transmission and distribution losses. "If a company reduces the transmission and distribution loss, it can save upto Rs 80 crore," said an official.