PAC chairman smells rat in Adani Solar power deal

Mangalagiri: Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Payyavula Keshav on Friday asked why the Jagan Mohan Reddy government decided to purchase 9,000 mw power from Adani Solar at Rs 2.49 per unit when all other states in the country rejected the same considering it too costly.

Keshav said no state came forward in the past 22 months to accept the offer of Adani Solar but the AP government was going for the dubious deal without proper evaluation. "Where is the need for AP to buy Adani power at Rs 2.49 when Gujarat called a tender for just Rs 1.99 per unit? The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) also called a tender at a lower rate of Rs 1.99 in November, 2020 itself," he pointed out.

Addressing a press conference at party central office here, the PAC chairman said Adani power would cost much higher at Rs 3.50 to Rs 4.50 at discom level but not Rs 2.49. Everything was amiss with the mysteriously hasty manner in which the AP Cabinet was trying to accept the Adani offer. On September 15, the SECI wrote to AP saying that Adani Solar had offered to cut down their rate from Rs 2.90 to Rs 2.40. The next day, the AP Cabinet had taken it up and decided to consider it.

Keshav questioned the wisdom of buying Adani power when this company would manufacture solar panels in Gujarat and set up plants in Rajasthan. The whole project involved Rs 30,000 crore of investment and the GST towards this would only go to Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Jagan government gave it all on a nomination basis to this massive Rs 30,000 crore project without going for tenders. The AP officials concerned would have to be held accountable for this, he said.

The PAC chairman asserted that the TDP was not against such major projects but Chief Minister would have insisted for Rs 30,000 crore investment in AP alone. If such a massive investment came up in Kurnool or Anantapur or Chittoor or any other districts, it would have spurred economic activity along with creating huge job opportunities. The TDP would not sit silent and definitely question when the leaders in the government continued to cause losses to the people.

He demanded the Jagan government to explain whether or not the discom level rate under Adani offer would come to Rs 3.50 per unit but not Rs 2.49. If the exemptions of the Centre were excluded, the rate would further go up to Rs 4.50.

Objecting to 'false propaganda', Keshav decried the government cancelling the PPAs signed during the N Chandrababu Naidu government in the name of grid security. How could the Jagan government go for 9,000 mw of Adani Solar power when there was threat to grid security? No transmission lines were set up and no development was taken up in APTransco and APGenco in the past two and half years, he said.

The PAC chairman said the AP deal with Adani would impose an additional burden of Rs 1.20 Lakh crore on the poor and middle class people over 25 years. Punjab cut power rates by Rs 3 per unit though it had no solar power like AP.

Keshav pointed out that the Jagan government cancelled wind power contracts saying AP had no need for it since the state was power surplus. But, the subsequent orders from the court and the Centre accorded 'must run' status to wind projects. As a result, the Jagan government erroneous policy was going to cause Rs 2,000 crore to Rs. 6,000 crore needless burden on the people.