The state government has informed the APERC not to implement hike in tariff for domestic consumers and low consumption cottage industries.
In a major initiative to reduce the burden on the domestic electricity consumer, the state government has informed the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) not to increase energy charges for the domestic category (in the slab of 201-300 units consumption per month) and cottage industries for the financial year of 2011-12.
Accordingly, the government has also informed the APERC that the Tatkal Category for agriculture should be abolished and merged with the existing subsidized category of agriculture that benefits about 1.5 lakh farmers.
With the abolishment of the Tatkal Category, the number of agricultural connections benefited will reach 30 lakhs, an unprecedented milestone in the country.
The policy directions were intimated to the APERC after a meeting held to discuss power tariff proposals at the Secretariat on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, and was attended by Chief Secretary, S V Prasad; Special Chief Secretary (Finance), G Sudhir; Principal Secretary (Energy), Suthirtha Bhattacharya; and CPDCL CMD M T Krishna Babu.
"I will not put any burden on the common man, the middle-class, farmers or the cottage industries. On the contrary, the government will bear the additional subsidy burden over and above the present annual subsidy of Rs. 4,145.71 crores, as against last year's tariff subsidy of Rs. 3,652.81 crores," said the Chief Minister.
In fact, the proposal of enhancing the tariff in the category of 201-300 units by 48 paisa per unit, and the enhancement of the tariff for cottage industries by 50 paisa per unit, was made by the APERC. The proposal, however, was not accepted by the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister has categorically directed the officials of the DISCOMs to ensure affordable and satisfactory power supply to its consumers. "Electricity is the lifeline of our economy, and hence, consumers should be made willing partners in our endeavour to achieve an integrated development of the power sector," he said.
Principal Secretary (Energy), Sutirtha Bhattacharya, informed Kiran Kumar Reddy during the meeting that the DISCOMS has proposed to APERC to reduce the present minimum charges from Rs. 50 to Rs. 25 per month for the low energy consumers.
This pro-consumer initiative of the power utilities will benefit around 23 lakhs low-energy consuming consumers.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that the new tariff hike will nominally impact 11 lakh consumers out of a total 1.89 crore domestic consumers, which implies that 95 % of consumers will remain unaffected by the hike.