VIJAYAWADA: At a time when the opposition YSRCP geared up to organise Statewide protests resenting the power tariff hike by the TDP-led NDA government, Minister for Energy Gottipati Ravi Kumar squarely blamed former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the increase of electricity charges.
Gottipati said Jagan had reached another milestone in his ‘Tughlaq acts’, alleging that he himself initiated protests against the electricity charges he had previously proposed to increase. He accused Jagan of burdening the people with his ill-advised decisions during his tenure.
In a release issued on Thursday, the Energy Minister stated that when the TDP handed over power to the YSRCP in 2019, Andhra Pradesh was a power surplus state. However, Jagan’s government turned it into a power deficit State within five years due to poor decisions and corruption. He claimed that Jagan cancelled power purchase agreements, threatened solar and wind energy investors, and drove them out of the State, causing the loss of 10,000 MW of renewable energy.
He also accused Jagan of ruining APGENCO. In the name of addressing a power deficit, the YSRCP government purchased electricity at inflated prices-between Rs 8 and Rs 14 per unit, while it was available at Rs 5 per unit. These overpriced purchases, he said, were made to benefit Jagan’s close associates and earn commissions.
He highlighted that true-up charges approved by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) during Jagan’s tenure have now become a heavy burden on the people. These charges amounted to Rs 3,082 crore for 2021-22, Rs 6,073 crore for 2022-23, and Rs 9,412 crore for 2023-24.
The Energy Minister revealed that APERC was required to issue the final order on the true-up charges within 90 days of filing.
In fact, Discoms had filed the Q4 charges for 2022-23 in May 2023, meaning the commission should have issued the orders by August. For 2023-24, Discoms filed the charges in May 2024. However, the implementation of these charges was postponed to avoid backlash before the elections. Eventually, the charges were approved, increasing the financial burden on people.
Ravi Kumar termed Jagan’s protests against electricity tariff hike hypocritical. “Jagan himself created this crisis with his policies, and now he is staging dharnas to mislead the people. What else can this be called but a Tughlaq act?” he asked.
The Energy Minister assured the public that the coalition government is taking steps to fix the damage caused by the previous dispensation, and to ensure transparency and accountability in the power sector.