Hyderabad: The state government has now decided to join the Ujwal Discoms Assurance Yojana — a Central government scheme which stipulates quarterly revision of tariff by power distribution companies. The Centre has suggested that a quarterly revision will not have any adverse impact on the government and will also spare consumers from the heavy billing burden — which often happens if the power tariff is hiked annually. Besides, the revision of tariff four times a year will result in citizens getting used to it, it is believed.
Also, Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had recently suggested to the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation that the revision of bus ticket fares should be “regular” so that passengers don’t feel the burden in a single instant. An in-principle commitment that the state will join UDAY was given by Mr Chandrasekhar Rao to Union power minister Piyush Goyal when he called on the Chief Minister a couple of days ago.
The Union power ministry, Telangana discoms and the state government will sign an agreement on UDAY shortly. The two discoms in the state have a loan of about Rs 12,500 crore and a formal agreement would be signed in the next 15-20 days so that a part of the loan can be transferred to the state’s account. Under UDAY, the state government has to take over 75 per cent of the debts of the discoms, including 50 per cent in the first year and 25 per cent in the following fiscal.
The Centre will also help restructure the loans and provide long-duration repayment facility to the state government at a much lower interest. UDAY is an optional scheme and any state government can opt to stay out of it. If a state wants to be part of it, it has to amend its tariff revision rules. As part of the scheme, the Union ministry has proposed that discoms in select states can convert their debt into state bonds, as well as roll out a host of steps to improve efficiency at power plants.
