Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission Justice G. Bhavani Prasad and members P. Ramamohan and P. Raghu conducted a public hearing at Vidyut Bhavan here on Thursday.
Superintendent (operations) of Southern Power Distribution Company of A.P. Ltd. Bhargava Ramudu gave an overview of the tariff proposals.
Industrialists, traders, and people participated in the hearing, and predominantly urged the officials to desist from increasing the tariff. YSR Congress Kurnool constituency convener M.A. Hafeez Khan wanted a downward revision in the tariff in the drought-hit Rayalaseema region. Agriculturists were hard hit by drought and incurring crop losses due to non-sanction of power connections to borewells, he said. Power lines were running very close to houses in the slum areas and buildings in Kurnool posing the threat of electrocution, he said, and wanted them rectified.
S.J. Chandra Bose Rao, JAO of Pension Office in APTransco, sought continuation of the previous tariff slabs for LTA IA consumers, who mostly constitute workers and small farmers.
General Manager of Varaha Industries R. Raghuraman, who proposed to set up a cement factory, sought revision of HT 1A slab for industries, as they were bogged down by steep cost of raw materials, and said that the power bills would lead to increase in overheads.
A consumer from Dhone, B.P. Krishnamurthy, said that a series of complaints made by him in the last two years seeking rectification of dangling power lines remained unresolved.
He showed a number of acknowledgements received for his complaints sent by registered post to the APERC chairman, and wanted sincere measures to address issues.
Subbalakshman, an entrepreneur, said that small-scale industrial units consuming up to 250 units should be continued in the LT slab.
A tariff of ₹7 to ₹8 per unit for SSIs, by shifting them to HT slabs, would result in closure of at least 80 per cent of the units, he said.
CPI leader Pulla Reddy and representatives of other parties and traders submitted representations.
