Discoms brace to collect true-up charges to the tune of 3,083 cr

Guntur:  The power distribution companies are all set to collect true-up charges of Rs 3,083 crore for the financial year 2021-22 from April-2023 month power bills to be paid in May-2023. The discoms have already begun the exercise to collect the charges. The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has already given its nod to collect the true-up charges. Based on that, the discoms published the notification for the collection of true-up charges from the consumers. As many as 1.47 crore households, 14.5 lakh commercial users and 1.63 lakh industrial consumers would have to bear this additional financial burden.

According to the official sources in the discoms, the Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company will collect Rs 718 crore, Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Ltd will collect Rs 1,165 crore and Andhra Pradesh Southern Distribution Company Ltd has taken steps to collect Rs 1,200 crore from the consumers. The true-up charges burden will change for every quarter. The consumers would have to pay this amount in 12 installments. Based on the power consumption during the financial year 2021-22, they will collect the true-up charges. The true-up charges for the period of 2021-22 will be added in the April-2022 month bill to be paid in May month bill. The discoms have already started calculations to collect the true-up charges. Apartment owners will pass on the additional financial burden to the tenants.

At present, the three discoms have already been collecting true-up charges to the tune of Rs 2,900 crore for the period 2014-2019 from last August from the consumers. In addition to this, APCPDCL, APEPDCL and APSPDCL will collect the true-up charges for the period 2021-22. Generally power consumption increases in summer as consumers use ACs, air-coolers and fans. This results in consumers paying higher power bills during summer. In addition to this, the collection of true-up charges imposes additional burden on the consumers. Speaking to The Hans India, The Central Power Distribution Company Ltd chairman J Padma Janardhan Reddy said, "The APERC has already given its nod to collect the true-up charges. We will collect from April-2023 month bill to be paid in May-2023. The officials have already started the exercise."