AP Govt Prepares To Soften Power Blow

Rattled by the protests over the power tariff hike both from the opposition parties and within, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government has directed the energy department officials to quickly work out a method which could soften the blow to some extent. 
    
According to sources, the state government is likely to bear another Rs 108 crore in order to give relief to the consumers who consume 0-50 units per month and are above 500 watt load by way of reducing the tariff to Rs 1.45 per unit from Rs 2.60. Despite the government claiming that this would benefit about 97 lakh of the total 2.5 crore consumers in the state, statistics in the discoms show that the move would benefit not more than 42 lakh people. The AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has already spared those who consume 0-50 units with below 500 watt connected load slab from the tariff hike. Since many consumers are now using fans and coolers, their connected load has crossed 500 watts bringing them into higher tariff category. The CM wants to provide relief to the consumers belonging to this category. 
    
The chief minister has also asked the officials to examine whether there is any possibility to give relief to consumers in the 51 to 100 unit slab. This category has the highest number of consumers in the state with over 57 lakh consumers. They have been subjected to a 0.65 paise hike per unit. “We are working out the modalities to see whether this 0.65 paise hike can be reverted. By bringing down the cost per unit to Rs 2.60 for this category of consumers, the discoms revenue will come down by Rs 150 crore. If it works out, the government will reimburse this amount,” the sources said. 
    
The CM will take a final decision on this matter on April 4 and will announce the same on April 5. Overall, a burden of Rs 200 to 250 crore would be reimbursed by the state government,” disclosed a senior official in the energy department. 
    

After taking a decision on the reduction, the state government has to submit a request to the APERC stating its intention to reimburse part of the burden imposed through the tariff hike. And only after the APERC clearance the relief can be extended to the consumers. In all probability, power consumers may be forced to pay the increased power bills for the month of April and the relief is likely to happen only from May. 

Under fire from all sides after the steep hike in power tariff, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has promised to take a relook at the whole issue after his return to Hyderabad. He assured that the state government would take all steps to see that common man is not burdened with the new tariff. Addressing a public meeting here on Monday, the CM said he would review the power tariff cleared by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission on April 4 and 5. 

The chief minister has so far been uncompromising on the new power tariff by saying that people would have to take the burden for what they are consuming and that there is no point in extending the benefits of subsidies to the high-end consumers. However, in a turnaround Kiran announced that he would review the tariff hike as he has been facing flak even from the ruling party He said about 450-550 mw of power is being purchased every month at a high price to supply to the agriculture sector. “The government spends about Rs 5,500 crore on power subsidies to various categories,” he said. The CM said the government would spend Rs 85,000 crore to provide water to about 33 lakh acres in the next two years.