The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) today denied the charge by the opposition LDF that it deliberately delayed announcement of revision of power tariffs for the Assembly session to end, so as to suit the convenience of the Congress-led UDF Government.
The regulator, which announced a steep hike of 30 per cent in power charges across the board two days ago, said in a release that the process of finalising and declaring the new tariffs got delayed due to a case pending in the Kerala High Court.
The Association of High Tension and Extra High Tension Consumers had approached the court seeking SERC to be restrained from revising the tariff.
Based on the legal opinion, finalisation of the new rates was held up by the Commission and it waited till it received the go-ahead from the court earlier this week, the release said.
SERC had announced new rates on Thursday, a day after the monsoon session of the state assembly adjourned.
The LDF and a section of media alleged that the Commission delayed the announcement to help the Government avoid the opposition wrath in the Assembly.