Electricity Minister P. Thangamani on Monday denied DMK president M.K. Stalin’s charge that the government was burdening domestic consumers by charging exorbitant electricity charges.
Insisting that the electricity tariff in Tamil Nadu was the lowest in the country, he said that more than 70 lakh consumers were benefiting from the free 100-unit scheme, introduced by the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
The State had more than 2.1 crore domestic consumers, he said.
Cheaper tariff
Mr. Stalin had cited the provision of 80 free units in Kerala and a waiver of 5-7% in electricity bills in Maharashtra during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Mr. Thangamani said that for 300 units consumed in Tamil Nadu, the bill amount was just ₹500, whereas in Kerala the amount payable for the same number of units was ₹1,165. In Maharashtra, it would be higher, at ₹1,776.
He said the Electricity Department had been calculating electricity bills properly, by taking the average of the total units consumed for four months and issuing the net charges after deducting the previous month cycle (PMC) amount, paid for April, May and June.
Mr. Thangamani said that Mr. Stalin had called electricity an essential commodity. However, the State was reeling under power cuts for several hours during the erstwhile DMK regime. He pointed out that the Madras High Court had upheld the methodology for calculating EB bills, and said that the DMK’s proposal to organise protests on this front was surprising.
