Bhubaneswar: Power producing and supplying companies want a tariff hike, but with elections not too far away the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) will find it tough to oblige them.

The commission, however, on Monday began to hear tariff-hike petitions of these companies. The demand comes a year after the OERC had hiked the rates. While the tariff for the first 50 units had remained unchanged at Rs 2.50 per unit, it was increased by 10 paisa for every subsequent units.

An official said a tariff hike would hit 58 lakh consumers and those in power were not ready to give its rivals a stick to beat the government with.

Commission secretary K.L. Panda said: "We will not do anything that will hurt consumers. But we also have to ensure that power companies do not incur losses."

The commission's director (regulatory affairs) Priyabrata Patnaik said: "We will have a meeting of the state advisory board on February 20. We will talk with all the stakeholders and the OERC will announce its decision in March."

Odisha Hydro Power Corporation and Odisha Power Generation Corporation had sought the hike on the ground that their cost of production had increased and they felt that the consumers should bear the financial burden.

Sources said the Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco), which carries power to the distribution companies, also favoured a hike.

Director (commercial), Gridco, Manas Kumar Das said: "The power producing and distributing companies have filed a plea on the basis of their annual revenue requirements. We will ask for a hike of 5 to 10 per cent, but the OERC will decide."

President of the Odisha Power Consumers' Federation Panchana Kanungo said: "We will not accept any hike."