Outrage over steep power tariff hike, new slab in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Telangana state power utilities proposals that would result in a huge hike in tariff attracted criticism across the board on Wednesday.

The discoms, in their annual revenue requirement submitted to the Electricity Regulatory Commission, had proposed to hike tariff and reduce the number of slabs from 12 to four. On top of this, they proposed changing the system to non-telescopic, which would inflate power bills.

Experts said the hike in domestic tariff could have been avoided by having a check on the indiscriminate purchase of power at a higher cost from private companies and prudent measures to reduce the capital cost of power plants being set up in the state. Everyone, however, acknowledged the TRS government’s success in providing 24x7 uninterrupted power.

M. Venugopal  Rao of the Centre for Power Development said if the loopholes in power purchase agreements were plugged, the gap of Rs 2,000 crore which the discoms had presented could have been easily avoided.

“The commission can examine the PPAs. With a few modifications, the capital cost of new power plants can be reduced and the burden on common man can be avoided,” he said.

“Based on what feedback did the discoms reduce the  number of slabs. Did they conduct any study or paid any agency to do the survey,” asked Pradeep Gadicherla, Hyderabad Software Employees Association convenor, corporate social responsibility. He said the regulatory should conduct public hearings on holidays at multiple public places and not for a day or two at the commission’s office.

“Is it post-election gift from the government? They waited for all the elections to be completed,” said school teacher K. Sadhika.

B.V. Rao Chelikani, chairman, Federation of Greater Hyderabad Resident Welfare Associations, said the discoms should concentrate on reducing the transmission and distribution losses.

He said non-telescopic tariff was not acceptable. Owners of commercial establishments said the market was not in a position to pass on the hike on to the customers due to stiff competition.

Mahender Kumar Agarwal, president of the Hyderabad and Secunderabad Pearl Merchants Association, said the government should withdraw free power to the agriculture sector so that the tariff burden on other sectors can be brought down. “The government should at least levy tariff on commercial crops or those which earn a profit for farmers,” he said.

Telangana Cloth Merchants Association president Ammanabolu Prakash said, “We are paying VAT, municipal tax, trade licence, income tax. It is not possible to pass on every hike to the consumer. We are doing business and we have to bear the burden,” he said.