VIJAYAWADA: In its rebuttal to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s white paper on the energy sector released on Tuesday, the YSRC said what was claimed in the white paper was not correct.
Speaking to mediapersons, former minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy said as claimed by Naidu, there was no power deficit at the time of State bifurcation.
During 2014-19 what was witnessed was an urgency for power capacity tie-up regardless of the cost implications emanating from high tariffs and the burden on future generations, under-release of subsidy to Discoms leading to the deterioration of their financial health, a huge increase in liabilities in the power sector both on account of debt in the books of the power sector corporations and payables to power generators, he said.
The YSRC leader said the liabilities of the power sector as on March 31, 2019, were Rs 86,215.46 crore, including the payables to power suppliers. The debt increased at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 24% during the five-year TDP regime (2014-19).
The total subsidy release and support to Discoms over the five-year TDP tenure (2014-19), was to the tune of Rs 13,255.76 crore, and as against this, the subsidy release and other support to Discoms during the YSRC government (2019-24) was to the tune of Rs 47,800.92 crore, he said.
The former minister further said unlike the TDP government, the YSRC regime laid utmost emphasis on timely financial support to Discoms and execution of PPAs with utmost consciousness to ensure that the tariffs are low.
Owing to this, the debt in the books of the power sector after the five years of the YSRC government has reached Rs 1,11,863.84 crore and to this, if the payables to power generators are also added, the liabilities would reach Rs 1,22,518 crore.
“Therefore, during the period of the YSRC government, the debt increased from Rs 86,215.46 crore to Rs 1,22,518 crore translating to an annualised liability growth (CAGR) of 7.28% as against 24% during the TDP government,” he explained.