It is TDP's false propaganda over hike in electricity charges: minister Rajendranath Reddy

Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has fumed at the opposition over the allegations on increasing electricity bills. He said that although the prices of slabs have not gone up, the increase in consumption of electricity in lockdown is high, which led to an increase in charges. Speaking at a press conference in Vijayawada on Friday, Minister Buggana said, they had not given bills for the month of the March and April amid lockdown and we are now just collecting the bill for an average of three months. "With the three-month bill to be cut at once, the charges seems to be appeared higher; with this, the TDP is spreading false propaganda, " Finance minister said.

He said that the new tariff has come into effect from April and the electricity bills have gone up as people stayed home in the wake of the lockdown and current bills were increased after the meter reading was taken for two months in the combine and the increase in tariff slab. Rajendranath Reddy alleged TDP of bringing the static method to charge the electricity bills from 2016 to 2019, which is nowhere used in the country. The method seems to be confusing the people by charging high rates, " Rajendranath asserted. He APERC dynamic method has been implemented till 2016 where the bills were charged as per norms.

Rajendranath Reddy further said that if the unit was purchased for 4.33 paise in 2014, it had been increased to Rs 6 per unit in 2019 during the TDP period. "When the YSR Congress Party came to power, we reduced the unit to 5.16 paise. On the other hand, we had paid 7000 crore pending dues to the GENCO after coming to power, " FM said. He also opined that all that is promised in the election manifesto is being implemented by this government and keeping the electricity bills online for two years.