The State Government’s inefficiency has led to the imposition of True Up charges on ordinary citizens, alleged PAC Chairman Payyavula Keshav and demanded immediate release of ₹20,000 crore to the discoms.
At a press conference in Anantapur on Friday, Mr. Keshav said the State government had stopped buying power from indigenous sources like the Hinduja Power, stopped production at Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant and running VTPS at Vijayawada at 60% capacity, which was forcing it to buy power from the exchange at a higher rate.
The subsidy amount for the agriculture connections was not paid by the government to the tune of ₹12,000 crore and another ₹8,000 crore was due from government departments, he said and opined that if paid this true up charge need not be collected.
When pointed out that the YSRCP government had been saying that ₹16,000 crore dues were not paid during the TDP tenure, Mr. Keshav said if that was true, what was Mr. Buganna, the then PAC Chairman at that time.
He agreed that there were some dues during the TDP period also, but the current government instead of saving money through purchase of indigenously available power, was splurging money by purchasing power and alleged that the aim was to handover power generation to Adani.
He took objection to the government only partially withdrawing the True Up order and giving an October 19 deadline for objections against yet another order.
The APERC was playing to the whims and fancies of the state government and had to withdraw its order knowing well that it would be eventually struck down by the AP High Court after it stayed the order on Thursday, Mr. Keshav added.
He wanted the ERC to stand by the people’s side by asking the government to pay up the dues first.
