TEPCO to hike electricity fee for businesses by 17 pct

TOKYO, Jan 17 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it will raise electricity rates for corporations by an average 17 percent to meet the rising costs of generating thermal power following the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

"If the current situation continues, our operation will worsen further and we will see an impact on fuel procurement," Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Toshio Nishizawa said.

"We will continue to work on streamlining but we need to ask for a rise in this tough operational environment. We are very sorry for our customers," Nishizawa told a news conference.

He indicated the rate hike would affect businesses that use a large amount of electricity, such as factories, department stores and large office buildings.

The hikes are expected to come into effect from April 1 and net the beleaguered utility an extra 400 billion yen (5.2 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue on some 240,000 user contracts for 50 kilowatts or more.