VIJAYAWADA: Rubbishing claims that direct benefit transfer (DBT) of free power subsidy for agricultural connections would burden the beneficiaries, the chief minister’s principal advisor Ajeya Kallam said the reform would empower beneficiaries to seek accountability from the power utilities as the subsidy amount would be credited into their accounts. However, he added that the exclusive bank accounts for farmers that would be opened for DBT, will be operated by the power agencies.
The government will implement DBT in one district as per the Centre’s directions. “The Centre circulated the draft of Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which is likely to be introduced in Parliament in the upcoming session. In the Bill, the Centre proposed DBT as a provision. Before implementing it, the Centre included it as a reform to avail more borrowing... There won’t be any burden on farmers,” he said on Wednesday.
“There is no question of farmers making advance payments. Power utilities will generate farmer-wise power bills to the finance department, which will examine and credit the amount in the exclusive bank accounts that will be opened. From there, it will automatically go to the power utilities,” Kallam added.
The energy department is considering three-four districts to launch the initiative on an experimental basis, and a decision will soon be taken, he noted.The principal advisor added that the power utilities will bear the cost of installing smart meters. There are about 17.55 lakh agricultural connections across the 13 districts, and all of them will be regularised, he added. “The smart meters/IRDA meters are likely to cost Rs 7,000-8,000 crore. We recently got a proposal to upgrade the existing meters to smart ones without much expenditure. We are examining it,” he added, and asserted that all existing agricultural connections - for which Rs 7,171 crore is being spent, besides Rs 717.39 crore for aqua farmers - would be regularised.
The former chief secretary criticised the previous TDP government for not clearing dues, and alleged it procured power from private companies by deliberately reducing the peak load factor of existing power generation companies for “commissions”. He noted that the previous regime left behind dues worth Rs 20,122 crore as of March, 2019, to be paid to power generating stations. “In 2019-20, APTRANSCO and distribution companies (discoms) cleared Rs 34,384 crore to power generators. Of this, Rs 16,036 crore dues were left by the earlier government and the remaining Rs 18,348 crore was towards procurements made in the 2019-20 fiscal. Even subsidies worth Rs 13,391 crore, to be given to power utilities, were kept pending.
We cleared Rs 8,655 crore of those dues, besides Rs 9,249 crore pertaining to 2019-20. In total, our government released Rs 17,904 crore. The earlier government, in five years, didn’t release even half of what we did. We are not only clearing dues, but also protecting farmers’ interests by releasing timely subsidies,” he stated. He added that power utilities would also benefit as they would get a clear picture of the actual consumption by agriculture connections.
Power agencies, not farmers, will control accounts
When asked if the accounts will not be under the control of the farmers, Kallam replied in the affirmative. “The control (of accounts) will be with power agencies. This way, the DBT that the Central government proposed will be implemented, and also the money will reach the power agencies without being diverted anywhere,” he said told the press
A revolutionary step: Kallam
Kallam said it takes courage for a government to announce that it would implement DBT for subsidy as it would involve upfront payment of huge amounts at the beginning of every month. “When this proposal was brought up, several bureaucrats were against it. However, CM Jagan Mohan Reddy was determined, and said his father introduced free power and he would want to take the legacy forward. He took it up as a challenge. This is a revolutionary step,” he said
TDP’s claims rubbished
Kallam also debunked the claims of the earlier TDP government that it brought reforms to make AP a power surplus state. “It is laughable that the earlier government made such claims. AP became a power surplus state right after bifurcation with 12 per cent surplus generation capacity,” he said