Vijayawada: Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy justifies 'nominal' hike in power tariff

Vijayawada: Asserting that the power tariff was not increased in the past three years, Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said that the hike was a result of the poor decisions taken by the previous government besides the increasing expenditure.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday, Ramakrishna Reddy said that the power tariff was unchanged since the inception of YSRC government in 2019 and condemned the opposition's false propaganda on tariff hike. He said that due to the decisions taken by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the current government has to increase electricity charges slightly, without burdening the poor. He alleged that the previous government left a pile of debts with erratic power purchases, whereas the current government has been paying off all those debts.

He said that during the TDP rule, Chandrababu had left a debt of about Rs 85,000 crore, including the pending true-up charges, and even went ahead with irregular power purchase agreements (PPAs) making the state more debt-ridden.

He recalled that the power tariff was hiked thrice under TDP rule, despite having surplus energy supplies.

Refuting the opposition's allegations that over Rs 47,000 crore burden is being imposed on the public, he asked the TDP leaders to speak with legitimate proof and reminded them that the government is accountable for every rupee it spends.

He said that no government wants to burden people, especially Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who always stands by the people. With unavoidable circumstances to pay off the debts, the government had to increase the power tariff nominally and urged people to cooperate with the government.