Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has come down heavily on the Opposition for alleging that inflated power bills are being issued to the consumers.
“There is no iota of truth in the opposition parties’ allegations that the government has increased the power tariff steeply. The consumers are feeling the pinch as they have to pay three months’ bills in one go,” Mr. Rajendranath Reddy told the media here on Friday.
Power consumption went up due to lockdown and summer. Electricity bills were not issued in March and April. Hence, three months’ average consumption was taken into consideration while preparing the bills. “As three months’ bill is to be paid at once, it is being assumed that tariff has been increased,” the Minister said.
Dynamic system
“In fact, the government has switched over to the dynamic system of billing with a view to benefiting the consumers. Under the system, the slab rates depend on monthly power consumption during the present financial year (2020-21), which benefits the consumers. In 2019-20, the slab rates were based on consumption of the previous year. The consumers will understand the benefits in June,” he added.
Stating that the previous government had brought in the static system, which was not followed anywhere in the country, he said. The TDP government had filled the coffers without revising the tariff under the static system.
“Under the static system, there will not be any change in the tariff for power consumed in the current month. Instead, it takes the previous year’s consumption into consideration while preparing the bill,” the Minister explained.
Dues pending
The previous government, which claimed to be an expert in the power sector, had messed up the situation. The subsidies and power purchase bills had not been paid, he alleged.
Power purchase dues that were ₹4,900 crore in 2014 had gone up to ₹20,000 crore later. The dues to AP-Genco had touched ₹11,000 crore, the Minister said, and added that the government, besides clearing the dues, brought down the power purchase rate from ₹6 per unit to ₹5.16 per unit.
The State government decided to give time to the consumers to pay their electricity bills until June 30 without any penalty or disconnection of service. The government would put the details of electricity consumption of all the consumers for the last two years online, he added.
