The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has demanded that the State government bear the true up charges instead of passing them on to the power consumers.
CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao took part in an online public hearing on true up charges for the third quarter — October to December of 2021 — conducted by Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Authority on Wednesday.
Mr. Babu Rao said the true up charges were a burden to the tune of ₹598 crore. It was ridiculous that the government has put forth a proposal to levy true up charges at a time when the people were already bogged down with rising prices of essential commodities, petrol, LPG, etc,.
The power bills were already a huge a burden on the common man due to the hike in tariff t. In addition, the government was collecting thousands of rupees on the pretext of additional load. The government did away with the subsidy being given to SCs and STs for power consumption below 200 units. The government gave a twist to the subsidy by saying that it would be given only to those SC, ST colonies that were already notified, he alleged.
The policies of both State and Central governments had impacted the energy sector. .It was not right to burden the people with crores of rupees. The government should take steps to relieve the people from the burden, he added.
