Former Union Minister Ajay Maken on Thursday alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal government’s claim that there has been a reduction in the overall power tariff in the Capital was far from the truth.
Making a presentation of a report he had prepared titled “The truth of power sector in Delhi”, Mr. Maken said that the Average Billing Rate (ABR) in the Capital was among the highest when compared to other cities and States in the country and not the lowest as claimed by the AAP government.
“In 2018-19, the ABR in the national capital was ₹8.45 as compared to ₹7.36 in 2013-14. Thus, the power tariff increased by ₹1.09 in the last five years,” Mr. Maken alleged. Comparing the ABR with other places in the country, Mr. Maken said that in the last fiscal, the ABR was ₹6.59 in Madhya Pradesh, ₹6.63 in Punjab, ₹7.04 in Rajasthan, ₹7.05 in Haryana and ₹7.37 in Bengaluru. He added that the ABR includes fixed charges and variable charges.
Power subsidies
The Congress leader demanded that the government transfer power subsidies directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries and not to the discoms.
Mr. Maken said that ₹8,532 crore has been given to private companies as subsidies ever since AAP came to power and asked the government to provide a complete a list of monthwise beneficiaries/consumers, alongwith meter/connection number, of all those who have received subsidy post-December 2013.
Minister refutes charges
Terming the statements as “baseless” and “lies”, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said Mr. Maken should explain why the Congress bought costly electricity from private companies when they were in power and also charged high bills from the people.
“In the Congress, Ajay Maken is working as a BJP worker,” he said. “Maken is the person who had signed the electricity privatisation agreement with the private discoms and he should explain to the world the reason behind signing them at extremely high rates,” he said.
