The Hindu Business Line : AP not to hike power charges next year

THE Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Sunday approved a six-point strategy for the power utility Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (APTransco) to prevent the need to hike power charges for domestic consumers during the next financial year.

According to a State press release, the move was encouraged by the impressive performance of power utilities and copious inflows that helped increase hydel generation.

The decision is expected to benefit an estimated 80-lakh domestic consumers in urban and rural areas, the release said.

Interestingly, while the opposition parties in the State were demanding reduction in power tariff following increased hydel generation, the Government said it has decided to continue with the prevailing tariff for the next fiscal also without causing any additional burden on the domestic households.

"This is nothing but a pro-active power consumer oriented decision by the Chief Minister on the occasion of the 59th Independence Day Celebrations," the State release said.

According to it, the Chief Minister's direction to the power utilities has come in the wake of pleas from the domestic consumers during the series of meetings he had held with the public in couple of districts recently.

The Government is of the view that transmission and distribution losses would soon come down to 21 per cent from the present level of 23 per cent.

The energy conservation methods being propagated by the Government would also bring down power consumption by a minimum of 25 per cent, the release said.

As against Rs 1,600 crore spent on improving transmission and distribution network during the last fiscal, the Government proposes to spend Rs 2,000 crore during the current fiscal.

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