Vijayawada: Proposals to levy interest on power consumers decried
CPM executive committee member Ch Babu Rao shows the letter written to the APERC
Vijayawada: In a letter to the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, CPM executive committee member Ch Babu Rao stated that AP Eastern Power Distribution Company appealed to the APERC to amend the clauses 11 and 15 (4) in its regulations.
The APEPDCL pointed out that the government was not releasing the subsidies to the Discoms, and government offices and institutions were not paying the power bills. Several corporate companies and persons are also not paying bills resulting in default of payment to the power generating companies. The APEPDCL proposed to collect interest from the consumers by amending the regulations. The APERC invited objections from the public to conduct public hearing from Hyderabad on Wednesday.
The CPM took strong exception to the proposal to collect interest from the power consumers for the mistakes committed by the government. The CPM appealed to the APERC to reject the proposals.
It was pointed out that the government had already been collecting several thousands of crores of rupees from the public by hiking power tariff, changing the slabs, true-up charges, FPPCA charges and others at the rate of Rs 1.22 per unit.
It is grossly unjust to collect 40 paisa per unit without auditing the earnings and expenditure, he said.
The government which has been extending free power to agriculture and other categories should pay the subsidy to the Discoms but is not paying, he pointed out. Moreover, the government offices, institutions, and local bodies are not paying the power bills due to paucity of funds. The government should pay the bills in time to avoid inconvenience. Babu Rao said that it was unjust to punish the power consumers for the mistakes of the government and private institutions. The Discoms have already collected three months’ deposit at the time of giving power connections.
But, in the name of additional consumer deposits, the Discoms are collecting additional money from the consumers. The Discoms are also collecting delay payment charges if the bills were not paid within 15 days, and re-connection charges if the bills were not paid in a month. As a result, the Discoms have several hundreds of crores of rupees of public money in the name of deposits.
APERC should levy a penalty on the government if it failed to release the subsidy amount to the Discoms, Babu Rao demanded. He also demanded the APERC to conduct a public hearing in Amaravati instead of Hyderabad.