Telangana Budget 2018: Discoms to bear free farm power burden

Hyderabad: The financial burden on free power supply 24x7 to agriculture sector would have to be borne by Discoms. The state government allotted power subsidy of Rs 4984.3 crore in the 2018-19 Budget presented on Thursday when it was Rs 4,777 crore in the previous Budget.   In the annual revenue requirement, Discoms said the revenue gap would be about Rs 4,293.74 crore in 2018-19, much before the free power 24x7 supply to the agriculture sector decision of the government. 

Finance minister Etela Rajender said after Bud-get presentation that the free farm power supply  would cost around Rs 1,000 crore.  Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after review of the power sector recently said that by 2020, the Budget would cross Rs 2 lakh crore, of which the spend for lift irrigation would be Rs 10,000 crore and free power supply to the farmers would be Rs 6,000-7,000 crore and the government was prepared for that.

He had said power charges would be allotted separately for payment to Discoms for free power supply and lift irrigation projects. But in the Agriculture Budget allotment had not funds set aside for free power supply.  Finance department officials said the government was not in a position to allot power subsidy of more than '4984.3 crore allotted in the Bud-get. However, they expected release of required funds outside the Budget allocation.