Delhi power tariff may go up as Rs 38k cr recovery plan on anvil | Delhi News
Electricity bills in Delhi may go up with Rs 38k crore recovery rollout from April 1 (Representative image)
NEW DELHI: After more than a decade, power tariffs in Delhi are likely to increase from April 1 as Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) may soon issue an order to recover more than Rs 38,500 crore accumulated regulatory assets (RA, unrecovered costs) from consumers. This will be done by imposing higher RA surcharge in power bills so that RA accumulated since 2007 can be recovered in a phased manner over seven years.DERC’s affidavit of Jan 2026 before Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, says recovery will start April 1. On discoms’ plea, SC passed an order in Oct 2025 directing DERC to liquidate RA in seven years, from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2031.
Delhi power tariffs set to rise from april 1 after 10 years
Regulatory assets are the gap created when power distribution companies (discoms) costs — including power purchase, transmission and distribution — are not fully covered by tariffs because as populist measures the govt does not want higher power tariffs. The unrecovered amounts (gap) are recorded and allowed by power regulators to be recovered through future tariff hikes.Delhi has not seen a tariff hike since 2014-15. During this period, the cost of supplying electricity kept rising but tariffs were not revised leading to the creation of a huge RA load. These are essentially deferred costs which are recovered from consumers later through tariffs along with interest.An official said the buildup of these dues is a direct result of the decision to not revise tariffs for over a decade. While this kept electricity bills low in the short term, it led to a large accumulation of unpaid costs.The Supreme Court order in Aug 2025 mandated recovery of pending dues in the power sector across various states.Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has been asked to monitor the implementation of the SC order. Delhi’s three power discoms will get the benefits of the move to hike regulatory assets surcharge.Subsequent to the Supreme Court order, DERC in an affidavit to APTEL has said that the total regulatory assets to recover are Rs 38,553 crore.An official said in the recovery of the regulatory assets has been kept deferred as a result interest also got added to the total amount. The situation changed after the Supreme Court’s judgment in Aug 2025 (modified in Oct 2025 to expend the recovery to seven years).The court made it clear that such dues cannot be delayed indefinitely as it is not in public interest. It directed all states in the country to liquidate regulatory assets within a fixed timeline, setting March 31,2031, as the deadline.According to an affidavit filed by DERC before APTEL on Jan 5, 2026 the RA of Rs 38,553 crore includes Rs 19,174 crore for BRPL, Rs 12,333 crore for BYPL and Rs 7,046crore for Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. These are approved costs and reflect actual expenditure incurred in supplying electricity.Delhi power minister Ashish Sood said the previous govts have left Delhi with a huge outstanding regulatory assets of nearly Rs 38,000 crore because they did not invest on power infrastructure and onfundamental aspects of power in the national capital.“Previous govts just engaged in populist measures and in corruption due to which now Delhi is facing a huge burden of regulatory assets. The matter also went to the court, and now regulatory assets accumulated since 2007 are expected to be liquidated as per court directions. The BJP govt, however, is committed to ensuring that the financial burden created due to the bad planning of previous govts doesn’t fully fall on the people. BJP govt will take necessary steps to protect the people from this financial burden,” said Sood. No response was available from AAP despite TOI reaching out.