The Hindu Business Line : `AP committed to timely payment of subsidy to power utilities'

The Principal Secretary (Energy), Mr Jannat Hussain, submitted to the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) that the Government attached high priority to timely payment of subsidy and this was reflected in the payment record for the previous year. For the current fiscal also, the committed subsidy amount of Rs 1,513 crore had been paid quarterly in advance.

On the last day of public hearing by APERC on Tuesday, Mr Hussain urged the commission to take into account the efficiency and revenue improvement programmes launched by the Transmission Corporation of AP (APTransco) and the four-power distribution companies while determining the electricity tariff for the year 2004-05.

Meanwhile the Chairman and Managing Directors of three out of the four power distribution companies asserted before the commission that their balance sheets were well within the safety limits and hence there was no need for hiking the tariff for the next energy year. They have also announced improvement schemes and higher projections to benefit the consumers. On Monday, APTransco had also maintained that there was no need for tariff hike.

However, most of the 16 listed petitioners for the day had flayed the utilities for rendering poor service to the consumers. The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Mr B.V. Raghavulu and others also expressed apprehensions that there could be tariff hike after the ensuing assembly elections through the "special appropriation and regulatory asset" for which provision was made in the estimates.

According to the presentation made by Mr Dinesh Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of AP Central Power Distribution Company Ltd (CPDCL), an underground cabling system has been taken up in Hyderabad and Secunderabad for avoiding power interruptions, pilferage and ensuring the safety of the distribution network. This project was taken up under the Accelerated Power Development Reform Programme.

Mr Kumar stated that CPDCL was estimated to incur an expenditure of Rs 4,830 crore as against an income of Rs 3,965 crore during 2004-05 resulting in a deficit of Rs 865 crore. He, however, added that the deficit gap would be bridged with Government subsidy.

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