VIJAYAWADA: A relief has been offered from electricity true-up charges in Andhra Pradesh this month. There were mass protests as this had resulted in an additional financial burden of Rs 3,669 crore on power consumers in the state.
They were forced to pay true-up charges forming up to 60-70 per cent of the actual bills in the past two months after the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) allowed Discoms to collect this amount from electricity consumers.
The Opposition parties termed the relief announced on Sunday as a temporary step and suspected that true-up charges would be reimposed later. They want the government to bear true-up charges giving permanent relief to people.
The discoms had claimed an additional expenditure of Rs 25,952 crore and asked the APERC to give permission to collect Rs 7,224 crore. But the APERC gave permission to collect only Rs 3,669 crore in eight months.
The discoms had imposed Rs 1.27 per unit as true-up charge, which put a 60-70 per cent extra burden on the electricity bills. The imposing of the true-up charge in the past put Rs 254 as additional financial burden for a consumer who uses 200 units per month, Rs 381 for 300 units and Rs 508 to those who use 400 units per month.
The Telugu Desam, Congress, BJP, Jana Sena and the Communists staged a series of protests against the true-up charges. They objected to the collection of charges and filed petitions in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Recently, the APERC taking a suo motu review of the order on true-up charges for the 3rd control period (FY 2014-15 to 2018-19) in respect of APSPDCL and APEPDCL decided to withdraw the order. Discoms that collected true-up charges in the last two months stopped this in the electricity bills from this month.
WHAT CONSUMERS SAY:
Electricity consumer Venkateswarlu said he used to pay Rs 600 to Rs 750 per month in the electricity bill as per usage but was forced to pay Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,400 for the past two months due to this provision. This month, he received an electricity bill of Rs 650 without true-up charges and urged the government to cancel the true-up on a permanent basis.
CPM state executive member Baburao said the withdrawal of true-up charges was the result of the protests and agitations. But, APERC would try to collect Rs 2,500 crore as true-up charges on request from DISCOMs, he said, and urged the state to bear the true-up charges and give permanent relief to the people.
