Telangana Government Averse To Increase In Power Tariff
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Power tariff was increased last year and stayed unchanged in 2017 as well. It looks very bleak that the state government will permit any hike in the power tariffs for the second consecutive year. The power distribution companies will be submitting tariff plans to the TS State Regulatory Commission by the middle of December, suggests existing tariffs to be sustained for the years 2018-19. Initially, there was an indication that a raise is likely.
The officials met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to discuss the tariff plan. They brought to his notice that there will be a lot of demand for power from 2018 due to the 24-hour free power to agriculture program that was announced from January 1st, across the state of Telangana. Mission Bhagiratha will pump water for the rivers Krishna and Godavari and major lift to irrigation ventures like Kaleshwaram, Palamur – Ranga Reddy. Hence citing these issues, they argued it is very important to have a minor hike in Power tariff.
While the CM was averse to the idea of any hike owing to impending elections in 2019, and also he was against any hike to commercial and industrial sectors, leaving out domestic consumers, as he believes there is a stiff competition to attract industrial investments by only offering lower power tariff. CM also pointed that power costs around Rs 2 to Rs 3 per unit as against the earlier ones Rs 10 to Rs 15 per unit.
