The Opposition in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday held protests and criticised the Omar Abdullah government over a power tariff hike in J&K that will come into effect on September 1. Electricity was among key issues in the last Assembly elections in J&K, and the Opposition — including the BJP — has lashed out at the government for increasing the power tariff this year.

The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) has approved an average tariff increase of 6.83 per cent, effective for consumption from September 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027.

Government sources said the Power Development Department (PDD) had proposed a 5 per cent increase across sub-categories, but the Commission’s own assessment arrived at the higher approved figure of 6.83 per cent.

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While urban parts of Kashmir and Jammu are metered, several rural areas in both provinces still get electricity as per old agreements, which, the chief minister has earlier explained, is an impediment to providing 200 units of free electricity per household.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the J&K Apni Party held protest demonstrations in Srinagar on Monday and attacked the government for increasing power tariffs while reminding the National Conference of its poll promise.

Calling for a reversal of the hike, PDP leader Waheed ur Rehman Para said: “J&K government needs to step out of its lavish corridors and face the harsh ground reality of Kashmir before burdening people with more tariffs and taxes. The 6.8 percent hike in electricity tariff is outright anti-people and anti-poor. It must be withdrawn immediately and unconditionally”.

Remarking on the protests, the chief minister said: “Allowing for inflation over the last four years and the increased quantity of electricity we are supplying to the consumers, we are still subsidising power to a great extent”.

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He added: “Those who raise fingers at me should remember that they have also led the government here, and in their time, the power tariff was hiked by more than 14 per cent. It didn’t seem like an injustice then? Four years ago, the tariff was hiked by 15 percent, the BJP was quiet about it then. We are not celebrating the tariff hike. This is a compulsion”.

Officials in the government told that even after this increase, consumers in J&K pay only part of the real cost of supply. “The average cost of supplying electricity, as approved by JERC, works out to about Rs. 6.87 per unit, while consumers are billed on average about Rs. 5.25 per unit.”

This translates to the UT government providing Rs 2,420.78 crore this year — about 24 per cent of the total cost — as a direct subsidy, equivalent to roughly Rs. 1.6 support on every unit consumed.

Meanwhile, J&K’s entry-level domestic rate at Rs 2.45/unit remains lower than neighbouring states including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi. “The difference is that J&K’s own cost of supply is comparable to or higher than Punjab’s and Himachal’s, both of which cut tariffs this year on the back of surpluses. J&K’s rates stay low mainly because subsidies cover a larger share of the gap, not because power costs less to supply here,” an official said.