Govt draws fire over power true-up charges

Vijayawada: CPM state committee strongly condemned the government’s decision to impose Rs 17,000 crore in the name of true up charges on power consumers across the state, including the previous and the latest charges and demanded immediate withdrawal of the proposal.

State committee secretary V Srinivasa Rao, in a statement here on Monday, pointed out that the three discoms (power distribution companies) issued notifications on Monday proposing the imposition of true-up charges in the name of FPPCA charges for the year 2023-24. This is in addition to the already proposed Rs. 6,072 crore. In essence, the total true up charges would amount to more than Rs 17,000 crore.

With the latest proposal, the power tariff would be Rs 2.5 per unit which is double to the amount the poor are paying at present, he said.

Srinivasa Rao said that it was nothing but cheating people as the Discoms did not reveal in the notifications how much actually they are imposing on people and what was the reason for such a move. The real reason is the purchase of energy from private players at higher prices instead of taking from APGenco plants.

The CPM leader said that it is not proper to make people scapegoats for the misdeeds of the state government.

He demanded the government to withdraw the proposal to impose Rs 17,000 crore immediately.

CPM state secretary Srinivasa Rao points out that proposed Rs 17,000 cr charges will double the unit cost for even the poor consumers