Though the State government is yet to formally announce the decision, in a letter written to the managing director of Surat Electricity Company, the State government said the tariff had been equalised for all types of consumers.

Earlier, the State government had partly accepted the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee, which was set up to go into the issue. Though domestic users were to get power at the same rate, the State government had stated that certain industrial consumers would have to pay more than the GEB rates.

Rallies and demonstrations later, the state government had kept in abeyance the hike that was to come into effect from April 1998. The latest directive, dated April 13, 1999 asks the SEC to charge its consumers at the GEB rate; asks the GEB to charge for bulk sale of energy to SEC from time to time in such a manner so as to permit SEC to earn a clear profit equivalent to 80 per cent of the reasonable return on annual basis.

The letter also directs SEC/GEB to approach the State Electricity Regulatory Commission in the matter of fixation of tariff and follow the decisions of the Commission thereafter, and further states that while calculating the clear profit, transmission and distribution losses should be computed as per the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee.

It concludes by saying that with the acceptance of Swaminathan Committee's recommendations, the subsidy will be payable to GEB from the State government's budget to the extent of invoiced amount for bulk sale to SEC being lower than the prevalent grid tariff.

Meanwhile, most of SEC consumers went without power throughout Wednesday. Though the SEC had announced -- through a small advertisement -- that consumers receiving power from C and C2 stations would have the supply disconnected up to 7 p.m., power supply resumed after 8.30 p.m in most areas.

The company sources said the two stations were shut down for pre-monsoon maintenance. But unlike its earlier advertisements, where all places that will go without power are mentioned, the recent one did nit carry names of the localities and, being small, was missed by many.