Scrap the true-up charges on power consumers: RWA

Anantapur: Residential Welfare Association (RWA) flayed the state government for burdening the people by hiking power bills at a time when they were reeling under the coronavirus crisis. Power consumers are up in arms against the government for the indiscriminate true-up charges backlog imposed all at once on the consumers. Scores of anxious and worried consumers are flocking to Transco offices and conveying their protest on the unexpected burden levied on the unsuspecting consumers.

The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has disposed of the petitions filed by power distribution companies seeking approval for true-up charges and allowed APSPDCL and APEPDCL to claim only Rs 3,103 crore as true-up charges as against the proposal to collect Rs19,603 crore between 2014-15 and 2018-19.

True-up claim is the expenditure incurred by the Discoms over and above the approved annual revenue requirement by the electricity regulatory commission due to variations in actual costs and would be collected from consumers concerned.

Though the commission arrived at the final true-up for all the years to be Rs 4,939 crore, it deducted the additional agriculture subsidy already paid and the renewable energy certificate (REC) income of Rs 1,926 crore and finalised the net true-up as Rs 3,103 crore. Even after condensing the true-up charges to Rs 3,103 crore, it has burdened the average power consumer by Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. Even those who are getting power bills of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month are now required to pay an additional Rs 3,000 as backlog true-up charges for the period 2014-15 to 2019-20 years.

According to the petitions filed by the Discoms, true-up charges claims for the years 2014-15, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 stood at Rs 861 crore, Rs 11,144 crore, Rs 3,257 crore and Rs 4,342 crore respectively. The Discoms, in the last few years, cited the deviations in cost of actual power procurement, fixed costs and variable costs and carrying costs as reasons for the drastic change in actual costs as against the approved costs by the commission.

RWA president Dr M Suresh Babu, in a statement, pointed out that the 27-month-old YSRCP government has hiked electricity bills four times. Last year the government should have bifurcated the units consumed in two months and decided the slab. When all other states were coming to the rescue of people, the AP government was burdening them with inflated bills, he said.

The commission held public hearings on the same and received several objections opposing the true-up charges, stating that the consumers can't be burdened. He alleged that the true-up claims were "suspicious" and urged the commission not to approve them. However, after thoroughly taking into all the factors as per the laid down rules, the commission approved Rs 3,103 crore as true-up claims as against the Discoms' claims of Rs 19,603 crore. Consumers have to bear 10 percent more.

Meanwhile CPI state secretary K Rama Krishna, in a press statement, ridiculed the YSRCP government for imposing the true-up charges on the people, who trusted his promise that he would never hike power charges if he is voted to power. During his two-and-half-year rule, he hiked power charges four times and broke his promise he specifically made to people. He demanded the government to scrap the true-up charges forthwith.