HYDERABAD: Amidst allegations that the TS discoms are in losses, chairman and managing director of Transco and Genco D Prabhakar Rao said that all discoms in the country, except Haryana, were in losses. He, however, averred that the loans raised by TS Genco are spent on the capital investment.
He was clarifying after the allegations of BJP State president K Laxman that TS Discoms are running in losses. Prabhakar Rao told reporters here on Tuesday, that they augmented the distribution and transmission lines with an investment of Rs 23,000 crore. This enables the power utility to provide quality power to consumers. Besides, loans were raised for power plants like KTPS and Pulichintala. The total debts were around Rs 35,000 crore.
He also said that the Centre imposed clean energy cess on the use of coal for thermal plants. “We are paying Rs 400 cess per tonne. This comes around Rs 1,484 crore every year. In addition to this, coal prices too have increased causing an additional burden of Rs 1,440 crore. As Telangana is a new State, we have increased the salaries of employees.
The employees’ cost has increased by Rs 1,600 crore,” he said while explaining the reasons for losses. He also said that the tariff was not revised done in the State for the benefit of consumers. He, however, clarified that besides the subsidy amount, the State government gave an additional Rs 7,200 crore funds to the power utility to meet its financial needs. “It is not fair on the part of Laxman to tell that only Telangana discoms were in losses in the country,” Prabhakar Rao said.“All the staff in power sector are professionals. We will not succumb to any pressure,” the CMD said.