Urging the UT administration to withdraw the electricity tariff hike, secretary of Puducherry unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) V Perumal said his party would stage an agitation in front of the head office of the electricity department on April 24 to press for the demand.
Speaking to reporters, the CPI (M) leader said the power tariff hike would add to the woes of the common man already reeling under the price hike of essential commodities. The Central and State governments were doing little to check the inflation and the hike in prices of petroleum products, which have a cascading effect on the prices of essential items.
Pointing out that domestic consumers were paying `70 for 100 units before the hike, Perumal said now they have to pay `153 which includes `100 (as per the hiked tariff), 10 per cent surcharge, `10 as meter charge and surcharge, which is more than 50 per cent of the existing tariff.
Perumal alleged that the electrical shops that were authorised to sell meters were charging more than the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). He claimed that a meter having an MRP of `900 was being sold at `1,500 by these shops.