Telangana: Revanth Reddy denies hike in power tariffs

Discoms have fallen into debts as they failed to get arrears from the Telangana government, said TPCC chief Revanth Reddy. The Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) on Friday held a meeting over the hike in power tariffs where Revanth Reddy raised his voice against the rising debts of the discoms.

He told TSERC that the government is also considered as a consumer. "All the subsidies and charges on the schemes announced by the government should be paid to discoms. Every year, the government need to pay Rs 16,000 crores to discoms, however, it is only paying Rs 6,000 crores leaving out the rest. The debts rose to Rs 60,000 crores," Revanth said, adding that the prime defaulter of discoms is the state government and an action should be taken in a similar way to that of on a consumer.

He questioned why the discoms are reluctant to ask the government when they don't hesitate to pressurize the consumers.

Reddy continued that there is only one megawatt of solar power generation in the state. "The solar power is being purchased at 70 paise higher rate. The dues are higher in Hyderabad and Siddipet. Due to the negligence of the officials, many accidents are being happened with the electric wires hanging in several places," Revanth said questioning why the criminal cases are not being filed against those officials.

He also said that the Congress party is denying the hike of the power tariff in the state and asked the TSREC to reject the proposal of TS Transco on power tariff hike.