Not enough allocation for power sector

Hyderabad: Vennam Anil Reddy, former president of FTAPCCI, on Monday observed that the Telangana government failed to make sufficient budgetary allocation for power sector in the Annual Budget for 2017-18 presented by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender in the Assembly here.

“An allocation of Rs 4,203 crore was made to the power sector in the Budget. The amount, which is meant for meeting agriculture and other power subsidies, is lower than Rs 4,500 that was earmarked for the sector in the last budget,” Reddy pointed out.

According to him, the amount will not be sufficient as there is significant increase in power consumption in agriculture sector and also under the schemes for providing free electricity to the families below poverty line.
“
Government enhanced free power supply to agriculture from seven hours a day to nine hours now. This will obviously lead to increase in the consumption of free power. Discoms informed ERC that they would need Rs 9,000 crore for the power subsidies this fiscal. As the budgetary allocation is low, there is a clear chance that tariffs for industry, trade and domestic consumers will be increased,” he said.