PANAJI
Besides the burden of the recent power tariff hike announced by JERC, electricity consumers in Goa will now also be billed for the energy used in public lighting, with the charges applied retrospectively from October 1.
Chief Electrical Engineer Stephen Fernandes in a notification issued has said that the public lighting duty shall be levied and collected through electricity energy bills.
“Government of Goa hereby levies on the units of energy consumed, a public lighting duty at the rate as indicated against the respective category of consumers mentioned in schedule-A below, in the State of Goa, with effect from 1st day of October, 2025,” the notification stated.
As per the notification, the department will levy a duty of 5p/unit for low-tension domestic and low-tension agriculture categories, and 8p/unit for all other categories of domestic, commercial and industrial.
“The Duty worked out as 50 paise and above shall be rounded off as rupee on and the duty worked out as less than 50 paise shall be treated as NIL,” the department said.
Only low tension, low-income group category and electric vehicle charging station categories will not be levied additional duty.
JERC has already approved State’s proposal for 4 per cent power tariff hike for the current financial year as well as for 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-2030. While JERC has directed that the new tariff rates will come into force from October 1, the government is yet to issue any notification in this regard.
