The steep hike in electricity charges in the name of reforms for adjustment of losses, incurred by the power sector in the past, is absurd, CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy has said.
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A dharna was organised by the CPI activists, opposite the Corporate Office of AP Easter Power Distribution Company Limited (AP EPDCL) at Seethammadhara here on Wednesday.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Satyanarayana said that in the name of ‘adjustment’ the electricity consumers in the State would have to pay ₹3,669 crore to the discoms. It was unfortunate that the consumers were being taxed during the time of the pandemic. The YSR Congress Party(YSRCP), which had expressed its reservation against the hike in power tariff, when it was in the Opposition, was now ready to place a huge burden on the common people, he alleged. He wondered as to what had happened to the promises made by Mr. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy during his padayatra before the elections. He demanded immediate rollback of the hike.
He said that the prices of essential commodities were skyrocketing and the common people were already leading a hand-to-mouth existence. On the other hand, the Centre was making the State governments to impose hefty hike in property tax. Tax was also being imposed on garbage, he alleged.
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CPI city secretary M. Pydiraju said that the high tariff in the electricity bill issued this month has already ‘shocked’ the consumers. The income of the people has not increased during the last seven years. The government was providing relief to defaulters by writing off their outstanding loans. While the common employees were being made to pay 30% of their salary as tax, big corporate groups were paying a mere 3% of their income as tax, he alleged.
Party leaders Sk Rehaman, K. Satyaarayana, G. Vamana Murthy, Md. Begum, P. Chandrasekhar, R. Srinivasa Rao and P. Govind were among those who participated.