|
Hyderabad: Ignoring
opposition protests and despite an unprecedented electricity
shortage, Andhra Pradesh government Saturday hiked the electricity
tariff by about 15 percent, imposing over Rs.6,000 crore burden on
people.
The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC)
passed a new tariff order, which will come into effect from April
1. It has approved hike in tariffs for all categories - low
tension domestic, commercial and high tension industrial
consumers.
The hike for low tension consumers is 58 paise per unit, for high
tension consumers Rs 1.12 per unit, for LT commercial Rs 1.13 per
unit and the hike for HT general industrial category is 93 paise
per unit.
The tariff has not been hiked for domestic consumers who consume
less than 50 units per month. The tariff for them remains
unchanged at at Rs 1.45 per unit. This is expected to benefit 97.4
lakh out of 2.24 crore consumers.
According to an official release, the revenue at the current
tariffs will be Rs. 28,996 crore. The hike will enable four
debt-ridden power distribution companies (Discoms) to raise an
additional Rs.6,173 crore, an increase of 21 percent in the
revenues.
The revenue requirement for the discoms for 2013-14 is estimated
at Rs.40,639 crore. Despite the hike, the revenue deficit will be
Rs.5,470 crore. The total energy requirement during the year will
be 89,845 million units (MU) while APERC has approved sales of
77,410 MU, a deficit of 12,435 MU.
The APERC also decided to continue daily seven hours free supply
to agriculture, benefiting 30.7 lakh consumers.
The tariff was hiked even as opposition parties were gearing up to
intensify their protest over electricity crisis and the burden
already imposed on people in the form of Fuel Surcharge Adjustment
(FSA).
The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), whose fasting
legislators were forcibly shifted to hospital by police late
Friday night, decided to intensify the agitation. TDP chief N.
Chandrababu Naidu announced that he would stage a sit-in in front
of a power sub-station.
Leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched indefinite fast.
BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy along with other leaders began
the hunger strike at Old MLA Quarters here.
After TDP, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) also announced its
support to April 9 shutdown called by the Left parties.
|
Comments
|
Quick links