Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal pay most for power

Rural and urban domestic consumers drawing around 400 units or more of electricity a month in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal pay the highest rates in the country, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has estimated. Utilities in Maharashtra, including those in Mumbai, and Madhya Pradesh have witnessed regular tariff revisions by their respective power regulators in comparison to other states as increased costs were passed on. However, in other states, rising costs are not always fully passed on to consumers resulting in suppressed tariffs. Moreover, unlike southern states, utilities in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh do not have ready access to cheap hydel power. Debjoy Sengupta takes a look at the states with the cheapest and costliest domestic power...