CPM decries 'true-up' charges on power bills
CPM State executive member Ch Babu Rao
Vijayawada : (NTR District) Taking strong exception to the proposals put forward by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulation Commission (APERC) which is going to burden people up to Rs 598 crore in the name of true-up charges, CPM State executive member Ch Babu Rao said here on Wednesday while addressing the online public hearing by the APERC that in addition to the hiked power tariff, the officials are collecting additional deposits in the name additional load from the consumers.
He said at a time the prices of essential commodities are increasing which is causing troubles to the people. It is grossly unjust on the part of the APERC to propose the true-up charges which would burden people up to Rs 598.35 crore for the next three months.
The energy department had already withdrawn subsidy to the SC and ST consumers who consume less than 200 units per month on the pretext that the subsidy was applicable to the SCs and STs who live in the Dalit colonies.
The traders and the small industries are already burdened with the power tariff hike and some of them were forced to shut down their operations. He said that it was unjust to levy Rs 33 paise to 45 paise per unit in the name of true-up charges. If it is Rs 600 crore for three months, it would be Rs 2,400 crore per annum.
It is unheard of anywhere in the world to collect the additional charges after many years for the services rendered in the past, he pointed out.
Demanding the withdrawal of the proposal, he said government should bear the burden. The present and the previous governments had entered into agreements with private power generation companies detrimental to the interest of the consumers.
As per the direction of the High Court to pay according to the past power purchase agreements to the power generation companies, the government had to pay Rs 6,200 crore in the next two years, he said and suggested that the discoms should approach the Supreme Court to get relief.
He alleged that the state government had determined to fix metres to the agriculture pump sets spending several thousands of crores of rupees. Demanding that the APERC should function from Vijayawada, he said that even after eight years of bifurcation of the state, it had been functioning from Hyderabad. He took exception to the online public hearing though the pandemic situation is over.