Lucknow, Nov. 23 -- For the sixth consecutive year, electricity consumers in Uttar Pradesh will see no increase in power tariff, with the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) on Saturday retaining all existing rates for FY 2025-26 as distribution companies or discoms in the state have been found sitting on over Rs 18,000 crore surplus revenue. The decision comes as the Commission finalised the true-up for FY 2023-24, APR for FY 2024-25, and the ARR for FY 2025-26 of the state's five discoms under the newly notified UPERC (Multi-Year Tariff for Distribution) Regulations, 2025. For Noida Power Company Ltd, a private company supplying electricity in the Greater Noida area, the tariff has been kept unchanged. NPCL consumers will continue to get a Rs 10% regulatory discount on the bills. UPPERC approved a consolidated ARR of Rs 1,10,993.33 crore for FY 2025-26, lower than the Rs 1,12,865.33 crore projected by the discoms. Against this requirement, the total revenue expected from the existing tariff and the state government's subsidy of Rs 17,100 crore comes to Rs 1,03,283.29 crore, resulting in a regulatory gap of Rs 7,710.04 crore. HT already published a report "Diwali gift in store, no power tariff hike likely in UP for 6th yr in a row' in its October 6 edition. Welcoming the tariff, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parisahad chairman Awadhesh Kumar Verma said, "Now, UP is the only state in the country to have not increased the retail power tariff for six years in a row." He demanded that the commission consider reducing the existing tariff in light of the fact that UPPLC had over Rs 18000 cr surplus revenue from consumers. The Commission, in its tariff order announced jointly by chairman Arvind Kumar and member Sanjay Singh, however, noted that UPPCL and the discoms will enter FY 2025-26 with a projected accumulated regulatory surplus of Rs 18,592.38 crore, and therefore held that there is no justification to increase tariffs this year. The Commission has also set a five-year trajectory for reducing distribution losses from 13.78 per cent in FY 2024-25 to 10.74 per cent in FY 2029-30. Only Madhyanchal and Paschimanchal discoms achieved their loss-reduction targets for FY 2024-25, while Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal remained the worst performers. Also, UPERC has allowed all consumers to opt for the Green Energy Tariff and reduced the additional green energy charge from Rs 0.36 per unit to Rs 0.34 per unit for high-voltage consumers, while fixing it at Rs.0.17 per unit for low-voltage consumers. The state government will continue providing subsidies to lifeline consumers in rural and urban areas, rural scheduled metered consumers and private tubewells at the same levels as last year. The average cost of supply for FY 2025-26 has been projected at Rs 8.18 per unit, while the average billing rate remains Rs 7.61 per unit. Time-of-day tariff categories and time blocks remain unchanged, while the cross-subsidy surcharge for open access consumers has been rationalised further. The Commission noted widespread consumer complaints regarding lack of transparency in billing under single-point connections. The tariff orders will come into effect seven days after their publication in two Hindi and two English daily newspapers, and have been uploaded on the UPERC website. The commission is believed to have announced the tariff order after an informal nod from chief minister Yogi Aditanath and energy minister AK Sharma....