Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy has made Telangana stand on the Electricity (Amendment) Bill clear by opposing it outrightly during a meet over video conference convened by Union Minister of Power R.K. Singh on Friday.
Along with the Minister, Chairmen and Managing Directors of TS-Genco/TS-Transco, and two Discoms D. Prabhakar Rao, G. Raghuma Reddy and A. Gopal Rao, respectively, and Special Chief Secretary (Energy) Ajay Misra attended the video-meet.
The Minister stated that Telangana government was opposing the amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 keeping in mind its possible adverse impact on farmers and domestic consumers of lower strata.
Mr. Jagadish Reddy said the State had registered its strong reservations over the provisions of the bill which would harm the interests of getting subsidy and cross-subsidy in the power tariff such as farmers who are getting 24×7 free power in the State and domestic consumers who use energy of about 200 units a month.
The amendments, once take the shape of Act, would deny the subsidy to the two sections.
Further, he observed that the Centre was planning to take over the States’ control over power sector by getting it under its control entirely and later hand it over to the private players, who would have no social obligation except commercial interests. Stating that the Centre was adamant on the bill, Mr. Jagadish Reddy said in spite of large scale opposition to the bill by several States, it had failed to accommodate any changes suggested by the latter in the bill.
Reduce interest
On the loans proposed to be given to Discoms as part of the Centre’s stimulus plan, the Energy Minister requested the Centre to provide some relief to States by reducing the interest rate to 8.5% from the existing 9.5%.
