The State government is committed to creating a sustainable and financially robust power sector in the State and provide round-the-clock access to affordable and quality power to all sectors, Energy Minister B. Srinivasa Reddy has said.
Addressing the employees after releasing the New Year calendar and diary of the AP power utilities here on Thursday, Mr. Srinivasa Reddy said, as part of the efforts to improve the finances of the Discoms, the government released ₹17,904 crore in 2019-20 towards clearing their subsidy arrears.
Out of subsidy arrears of ₹13,391 crore pending as on March 31, 2019, the government released ₹8,655 crore in 2019-20 and ₹9,249 crore towards the subsidy announced in 2019-20 and other charges. The government also released ₹20,384 crore to the Discoms for clearing the pending power generator bills pending as on March 31, 2019. The total bills cleared by the Discoms stood at ₹34,384 crore in 2019-20.
The utilities successfully procured low-cost power in the open market and accorded high priority to the agriculture sector and implementing nine-hour free power during day time to all the 18.50 lakh agriculture services.
Free power scheme
The government allocated ₹8,353.58 crore to the free power scheme and released ₹1,700 crore for augmenting power supply infrastructure, including new substations and modernisation of lines.
Energy Secretary and CMD of AP-Transco N. Srikant, AP-Genco Chairman G. Sai Prasad and MD B. Sridhar, CMDs of Discoms S. Nagalakshmi (EPDCL), J. Padma Janardhana Reddy (CPDCL) and H. Haranatha Rao (SPDCL), and AP-Transco JMDs K. Venkateswara Rao and K. Sreedhar Reddy were among those present.
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