CHENNAI: There will be no tariff hike for 3.5 crore consumers in Tamil Nadu this year, electricity and law minister R Nirmalkumar said on Thursday.“As per consumer price index, we should have hiked the power tariff by 3.58% this year, but the TVK govt led by chief minister Vijay is not going to increase the tariff,” Nimalkumar said at the release of the white paper on TNEB’s financial health.He blamed the previous DMK govt for introducing the multi-year tariff formula, under which the power tariffs were revised every year affecting domestic consumers and MSME sector industries. “The previous govt was not bothered about the consumers, but we will not sign any paper approving tariff revision. If there are any challenges, we will face it,” he said.Later, Nirmalkumar said the present subsidies to all categories of consumers would continue including 200 free units of power to consumers with a bi-monthly of consumption up to 500 units introduced by the govt. He said there is no additional burden on the state govt due to the decision, since it does not have to release additional subsidies.
