HYDERABAD: Finance Minister T Harish Rao and Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy, who reviewed the financial position of the Discoms, dropped enough hints on Tuesday that a power tariff hike was inevitable.
They reinforced the hints by saying that the hike of the green energy cess from Rs 50 per tonne of coal to Rs 400 per tonne has imposed an additional burden of Rs 7,200 crore on the State government in the last seven years.
The increased cost means an additional burden of Rs 725 crore on Discoms every year, the Ministers said. They made it clear that the Discoms were facing losses and the State government was paying Rs 18,167 as subsidy every year for each agriculture connection. The coal transport charges have increased by 40 per cent. Moreover, due to the impact of the Covid-19, the officials could not collect Rs 4,374 crore revenue, the Ministers said.
The observations of the Ministers over the last two days does indicate a power tariff hike. Incidentally, the Discoms are yet to file the tariff proposals with TSERC, despite the deadline passing by.