Electricity bills of retail consumers will go up by one-third as the government doubles input costs for power generation. The cost of compressed natural gas (CNG) is also expected to rise by a fifth.

On an average, consumers will have to shell out about Rs 1.20 more for every unit of electricity consumed. Presently, per unit of electricity costs between Rs 3 and Rs 3.50 to end-users.

An average household consumes around two to three units of power everyday. If the tariff rises to Rs 4-4.50 per unit, the electricity bills will zoom by a third.

Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday told reporters that though the ministry has not worked out details, but a Rs 1 per kWh hike in production was likely. Ministry officials said the hike would be more when taxes, pipeline transportation charges and other levies are taken into account. Top power generators NTPC and Tata Power said the hike would be passed on to the consumers.

Shinde said the increase in administered gas price would have a cascading effect on electricity tariff. He said the cost of generation would go up by 90 paise to Rs 1.20 per unit for gas-based power plants in the country. Tata Power director finance S Ramakrishnan said the company would hike tariff from its Trombay project in Mumbai.

Rates of CNG sold to automobiles in Delhi and Mumbai will have to be raised by about Rs 6 per kg, while piped gas for households would have to be hiked by about Rs 4 per cubic metre to offset the government's decision to raise input gas prices. CNG currently costs Rs 21.90 per kg in Delhi.

Oil Secretary S Sundareshan, however, said PSUs retailing CNG and piped natural gas in the metros may not pass on the entire impact of hike in natural gas prices to consumers.

Indraprastha Gas, which supplies CNG and piped cooking gas in the national capital region, buys 2 mscmd and 0.2 mscmd of APM gas in Delhi and Noida respectively. Asked about a possible impact, Rajesh Vedvyas, its managing director, had earlier told Financial Chronicle: “We will pass on the burden to the customer of both CNG and piped cooking gas. It will be a very minimal hike at their end and revenue neutral for us.”

The government on Wednesday doubled the rate at which natural gas is marketed by two state-owned upstream oil companies ONGC and Oil India to $4.20 per mmBtu, at par with the rate at which Reliance Industries sells its gas. Under the administrative price mechanism, gas was available to select companies at $1.79 per mmBtu.