AP power hike to earn Rs 974 crore only

The Telugu Desam on Tuesday defended the power tariff hike as minimal and to burden the consumers only Rs. 974 crore even though the revenue gap was as high as Rs 6455 crore.

The TDP in a statement said the ARR (aggregate revenue requirement) cleared by the APERC was for Rs,30 308 crore while the revenue adjusted even after the tariff hike was just Rs.233,853 for the current year.

During the year 2014-15, there was no hike in tariff and FSA was also withdrawn to benefit the consumers. It will affect only 12.5 lakh consumers among the 155 lakh consumers in the state, i.e only 8% of consumers while 92% still get old rates it said.

Government is also picking up Rs.3186 crore as part of its subsidies like free farm power, cross subsidies for domestic and industrial consumers.

On the other hand, the power tariff was hiked by 14% from 2010-2013 burdening Rs.13, 105 crore on people of all sections. During the entire congress regime, the power tariff and FSA was hiked several times to yield Rs.25,815 crore to power utilities.