Hike In Power, Bus Fares In Telangana Likely

Electricity and RTC bus charges are set to rise in Telangana.

The State government is set to take a final call on the quantum on Thursday, and make an announcement.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao asked the officials to spare people using 100 units or less from the electricity charges hike, and increase the charges for those consuming above 100 units a month. He also advocated an increase in the RTC charges by about 10%.

To offer better power supply, the power utilities took loans of Rs 2,144 crores and spent Rs 2,700 crores in the last financial year. Despite losses, the government also increased salaries to the staff, prompted the utilities to supply uninterrupted power to industries and nine-hour power to the agriculture sector, and also spent Rs 2,400 crores to set up new sub-stations, transformers and lines and on related works. An increasingly financially stressed Telangana government is now looking to recoup some of the losses.

Of 86 lakh electricity accounts, 60 lakh use 100 units or less for domestic purposes, and so only the rest - mostly businesses, industrial units and heavy users - will feel the pinch of the hike.

The TSRTC has been in the news for the "grievances" of its employees, who most already consider pampered given they got a 43% fitment (hike) just a year back, and who are going on a day's strike for their demands. KCR said the RTC was facing a debt of Rs 2,275 crores, and said he was still not looking at a hike of over 10% of current charges in total, and only one rupee per 30 km for commuters of Palle Velugu.

KCR also asked the officials to focus on strengthening the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company.