VIJAYAWADA: Energy Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar has stated that the grave misdeeds committed by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government under the leadership of Jagan Mohan Reddy continue to haunt the power sector and the people of Andhra Pradesh even after five years.
The Minister released a statement on Thursday highlighting the severe damage inflicted on the power sector during the previous regime.
He alleged that driven by greed for commissions, the YSRCP leadership indulged in indiscriminate and overpriced power purchases, completely ignoring the utilization of available domestic resources.
As a result, an enormous burden of Rs 32,166 crore was unfairly imposed on the public in the name of ‘True-Up’ charges. The Minister expressed anguish that the people are still bearing the consequences of the destructive power policies pursued during the five-year YCP rule.
The Minister emphasised that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, with his vast administrative experience and long-term vision, has introduced far-reaching reforms to ensure that the public is not subjected to additional financial burden.
He recalled that until 2019, Andhra Pradesh stood as a surplus power state, but the YSRCP government pushed it into darkness through poor governance and policy paralysis.
He further criticised the previous regime for hiking electricity tariffs nine times, crippling households with unbearable costs. Soon after assuming office, the coalition government under the leadership of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu took several decisive steps aimed at public welfare. Excessive power purchases from private entities at exorbitant rates were significantly curtailed, he said.
The Minister noted that power generation has been enhanced to full capacity through various projects under the Energy Department, thereby restoring stability to the power system. By attracting investments into the power sector and effectively converging central government schemes, the coalition government is working towards reducing the burden of electricity charges on consumers.
Innovative approaches such as solar power, wind energy, battery storage, and pumped storage systems are being aggressively promoted to boost power generation, while external power purchases are being tightly regulated, the Minister added.
Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar said that since the formation of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) in 1999, the coalition government has created history by implementing a True-Down for the first time in 26 years. He reiterated that the YSRCP government had crippled the public by imposing electricity tariff hikes amounting to Rs 32,166 crore under the guise of True-Up charges.
He announced that the coalition government has decided to absorb the additional True-Up burden itself.