Here is a bad news and a good news for Andhra Pradesh government and people respectively. The latest hike in coal pricing is expected to be a huge burden for Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (APTRANSCO) and AP Power Generation Corporation (APGENCO). And the good news is that the burden will not be passed on to the consumer.
Andhra Pradesh procures most of its coal requirement from Coal India and Singareni and both the entities have hiked the price recently. Recently, the public sector entities Coal India and Singareni Collieries have increased the coal price by 9% and 10% respectively.
Principal Secretary, Energy Ajay Jain said, “These are the monopolistic organisations and they are free to declare their own price. The impact could be over ₹200 crore additional annual burden for the government.”
Mr. Jain, however, added that the government will not be passing on the burden to the end consumer. “As we have decided not to increase power tariff, the government will be absorbing the burden. There is also another way of absorbing it through enhancing the efficiency of the operations at Transco and Genco which is most unlikely,” the Principal Secretary said.
After the latest hike, each tonne costs over ₹50, which accounts for over ₹15 crore additional cost per month for Genco, the power generation entity of the government. As per an official estimate, the power production cost at GENCO will further go up by 18 paise per unit.
