Delhi's three private power discoms are earning an additional profit of Rs 300 crore monthly due to holding back of the announcement of the revised tariff structure by the city government, power regulator DERC said today.

In its detailed report to the government on power tariff issue, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission again pressed for early announcement of the tariff order prepared by it for the year 2010-11 in which the regulator is understood to have prescribed a cut down in rates.

"The non-issuance of tariff order has enabled the discoms to overcharge the consumers to the extent of about Rs 300 crore per month starting from April 1. The tariff orders need to be issued immediately," DERC chairman Berjinder Singh said in his report to the government.

Exercising a special power under Delhi Electricity Act, the city government had on May 4 -- a day before the scheduled announcement of the tariff order -- had directed DERC not to announce it till the regulator got the go-ahead from the state authorities.

The government had also asked DERC to file a detailed report on the issue taking into consideration the demand of the discoms for a hike in tariff.

The DERC, which was making last minute preparations to announce the new tariff, after receiving the government directive had indicated that it had planned to cut down the tariff by 20 to 25 per cent as discoms would have a surplus of around Rs 4,000 crore if the existing tariff was not tinkered with.

In his report submitted to chief secretary Rakesh Mehta who is also looking after the power department, the DERC chief said the new tariff structure was prepared considering the fact that discoms will get power at a very low rate from new generation plants at Jhajar, Bawana and Dadri which would become functional later this year.

He said currently the discoms buy power at a high rate and when these plants in Delhi will start generating power purchase bill of the discoms will come down drastically.

"The power from the new plants would be available to discoms at regulated rates, which are invariably less than market rates. The discoms will also be able to sell the surplus power and earn a profit of at least Rs 2 to 3 per unit," the report said justifying the planned cut in rates.

Sources in DERC said two of the three members in the commission did not sign on the report submitted to the government. However, a senior official in DERC said chairman Singh prepared the report based on unanimous decisions taken by the commission while preparing the tariff order and there was no need for any approval from the other two members.