The year 2013 did not bring any cheer to the people of the city. It left a burden of not less than Rs.300 crore on them. Be it the price of LPG cylinder, petrol or diesel, the year witnessed a quantum jump in their prices as well as power tariff and fuel surcharges.
Drinking water charges rose by 400 per cent following a decision taken by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).
The hike in water charges ranged between 87 per cent and 400 per cent for above poverty line (APL) families and 90 per cent for those languishing below the poverty line. The corporation also revised the Under Ground Drainage ((UGD), Dangerous and Offensive (D&O) trade licence fee etc.
The corporation officials, while revising the tariff in April this year, stated that there was a gap of Rs.17.83 crore between demand and O&M costs in water supply. At present, the demand is Rs.11.50 crore, while the O&M is Rs.29.33 crore and the hike in UGD charges, D&O licence fee etc. takes the burden to Rs.25 crore.
Power tariff According to CPI (M) city secretary Ch. Babu Rao, the hike in power tariff and fuel surcharge resulted in a burden of Rs.75 crore. The LPG cylinder costs Rs.1,100 now as against last year’s Rs.410 due to linking of subsidised LPG cylinders with Cash Transfer Scheme (CTS).
The APSRTC hiked the fares of city service by Re.1 and bus passes by Rs.50. The hike was a burden of Rs.36 crore in RTC’s Krishna region, he says.
The Central government revised the petrol prices 16 times and diesel price 14 times. The diesel price was Rs.50.88 per litre and petrol Rs.72.40 per litre in 2012; now diesel is sold at Rs.58.09 and petrol at Rs.77.09 respectively.
The burden, it is estimated, was around Rs.100 crore on the city dwellers. When contacted, Malineni Narayana Prasad, proprietor of a filling station in Auto Nagar, says that there are 220 retail outlets in the district and the additional burden will be close to Rs.255 crore in the district.
