No move to fix smart meters to farm connections, says energy minister

Replying to a question from D. Rama Rao and B. Ramagopal Reddy in the state legislative council on Monday, the minister said the power utilities bore the burden of Rs 1.29 lakh crore due to some wrong decisions of the YSRC government.

He said the cancellation of power purchase agreements by the YSRC government had raised a controversy.

The minister said though the number of power consumers was going up by five to six per cent per annum in the state, the previous government failed to generate even a single extra megawatt of power in the five years of its rule. The present government, he said, is bringing the power sector back on track and is according top priority for green and renewable energy.

Ravi Kumar said the state government has passed a bill, the AP Electricity Duty (Second) Amendment Bill, 2024, in the assembly to avoid imposing any additional burden on the power consumers and not impose fresh tariff.

The minister said that after the TD-led NDA government assumed power, there was no power disruption; and not a single rupee was hiked in the power tariff.

He said that when the first TD government relinquished office in 2019, there existed a due of Rs 3,000 crore to the Electricity Regulatory Commission. By 2022-23, this went up to Rs 6,000 crore under the YSR Congress rule.

The YSRC government tried to impose a burden of Rs 17,000 crore on the people, and the people “restricted the YSRC to just 11 seats in the assembly in the last elections,” he said.