Tariff hike inevitable: Tulasi

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Vijayawada: Power crisis will continue till June due to increasing gap between demand and supply, observed PCC official spokesman and MLA Mr N. Tulasi Reddy.
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, he said that the power tariff hike is inevitable with the prevailing crisis in power sector. He said that the Discoms have proposed the hike in power tariff as the expenditure stands at Rs 49,189 crore during 2013-14 and the revenue stands at Rs 30,522 causing a deficit of Rs 18,607 crore.
Though the state government provides a subsidy of `5,882 crore the Discoms have to collect `12,728 crore from power consumers to come out of the deficit. He said that the state government has been collecting lower charges when compared to neighbouring states. He said that while Andhra Pradesh has been collecting Rs 3.11 per unit in domestic sector, Karnataka has been collecting Rs 4.04, Maharashtra Rs 4.09, Tamil Nadu Rs 7.32 and Madhya Pradesh RS  6.09.
Coming to industrial sector, he said that AP has been collecting Rs 5.44 per unit against Rs 5.89 in Karnataka and Rs 7.32 in Tamil Nadu. He said that though the power-generating capacity stands at 16,000 mw in the state the thermal stations are generating 4,000 mw against 6,000 mw capacity, gas based units 3,500 mw and 2,500 mw coming from central grid. He said against 12,000 mw demand the power generation in the state stands at 9,500 mw.
The MLA said that 4,000 mw of hydel power generation was affected due to lack of water in reservoirs and gas power generation came down to 2,500 mw from 3,500 mw.
Condemning the allegations of TD president Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu on Chief Minister Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on imported coal, Mr Tulasi Reddy said that the APGenco needs 28 million tonnes of coal per year. The local coal plants are supplying 26.5 metric tonnes and 1.5 metric tonnes coal is being imported. He said that government companies participated in the tenders finalised for importing foreign coal. He said that the tender was finalised for Rs 5,300 per tonne in AP for foreign coal against `5,750 in Tamil Nadu and the NTPC has paying Rs 6,175 per tonne of foreign coal.
He said that Mr Naidu has been resorting to mudslinging on the Congress government.