Fifteen days to the carbon tax's implementation, its $23 per tonne price is being used as scapegoat by different groups for pending increases in prices such as rent and electricity prices.

Despite a federal government warning for businesses not to hike unjustifiably their prices on account of the carbon tax, several groups including state governments point to the levy as the reason behind pending price increase.

The New South Wales government, for instance, said it will have to increase rent for public housing tenants beginning March because the carbon tax compensation payments they receive would be considered income and the rental is computed based on a percentage of the tenants' income.

NSW Community Services Minister Pru Goward said the increase is needed to offset property costs which are also expected to go up due to the carbon tax. Ms Goward estimated that without the rent increase, the state would need to spend an extra $50 million over the next four years on public housing.

"The carbon tax will affect all of these people because it affects the price of every nail and every pot of paint that's put on those walls and every kilowatt of electricity we use to do those repairs," ABC quoted Ms Goward.

It would be on top of the $300-million maintenance backlog for public housing. She estimated the $50 million could fund 150 new properties or 8,000 additional bathrooms or 6,900 kitchen upgrades over four years.

The carbon compensation payment for single pensioners is $338 a year which would be now counted as income.

Ms Goward's pronouncement contrasts with an assurance earlier from NSW Council of Social Services Director Alison Peters that the compensation payment would not be counted as personal income.

The new policy is expected to affect 300,000 NSW residents who live in subsidised housing. A resident on a Newstart allowance of $245 per week pays about $75 in rental, which would go up by about $1.50 per week.

Besides rents, electricity rates in NSW are also expected to increase following the approval on Thursday by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) of an 18 per cent rate increase beginning July.

IPART said the rate hike will translate between $208 and $427 additional cost for NSW customers depending on which is the power service provider. The tribunal said half of the rate increase is because of the carbon tax while the remaining half is on account of higher transmission costs for poles and wires.

Opposition spokesman Greg Hunt warned of more power rate hikes in the future since the current $23 per tonne carbon price is expected to rise to $37 by 2020. However, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet stressed that while the higher carbon price would translate into $3.30 additional cost a week for the average household, at the same time their cash assistance would rise by $10.10 weekly.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell joined the growing call for scrapping of the carbon tax.

"It's going to threaten not just the hip pockets of families across the state, it's going to threaten jobs, threaten exports and this federal government is deaf to it," Macquarie Radio quoted the premier.

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