VIJAYAWADA: Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy has stated that power utilities purchased power at a much lower price of Rs 3.26 per unit on an average this month compared to Rs 6.21 per unit in October last year. He said that procurement of power at lower price shows the sincere efforts of the government to protect the power sector from unwanted financial burden.
In a statement on Sunday, the minister described the government as a ‘chowkidar’ for power in the State. The compulsory purchase of costly power put the entire sector in a deep crisis, he said, claiming that the power utilities have never seen such a kind of a financial crisis in the last 50 years.
“As a pro-people government, we will not let people be punished for the mistakes made by others (previous government) and cannot neglect the public sector, which is the backbone of the economy. That is why we are streamlining the power sector,” he asserted.
As a first step towards the streamlining, the minister cited the example of how the power utilities purchased power at a lower price in October this year compared to same month last year.