Govt urged to bear power true-up charges

Vijayawada : The round table meeting, jointly organised by the Taxpayers Association and the Andhra Pradesh Urban Citizens Federation, took place on Wednesday, where it was demanded that the State government should cover the true-up charges of Rs 6,072.86 crore. These charges had been planned to be imposed on consumers starting in November.

Representatives of Apartment Welfare Associations across the city, traders associations, small-scale industries, Trade Unions and experts in the energy sector participated in the meeting, presided over by the secretary of the Taxpayers Association MV Anjaneyulu.

Addressing the meeting, convener of AP Urban Citizens Federation Ch Babu Rao said that it was horrendous that the Minister for Energy announced that the Discoms were also ready to impose Rs 11, 826 crore in addition to the Rs 6,072 crore.

The imposition of true up charges would be an additional burden on handicrafts men, traders and small-scale industries.

MV Anjaneyulu said that the Discoms have already been collecting from 2014 to 2019 at the rate of 22 paise per unit for the last 27 months amounting to Rs 3,016 crore and it would continue up to July 2025.

They are also collecting 66 paise per unit for 2021-22 in the name of fuel surcharge adjustment and 40 paise per unit from 2022-23 every month for the electricity consumed earlier month. Now with the imposition of Rs 6,072 crore, the consumers will be paying Rs 1.32 per unit.

The traders expressed the opinion that at a time when the business had come down drastically, the burden of energy bills would be passed on to the people who purchased in their shops.

In addition to these additional charges, there are fixed charges of Rs 10 per kw, customer charges of Rs 25 to Rs 55, energy surcharge of six paise per unit which is Rs one per unit if it is shops and industries.

The consumers are already burdened and the true up charges should be borne by the state government, they said. The meeting unanimously demanded the government to bear the additional true up charges instead of burdening the consumers. It also demanded that the government should withdraw the proposal to fix smart metres.

The meeting has decided to submit a memorandum to the minister for energy and the chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Electricity Consumers United Forum was formed with MV Anjaneyulu as its convener.

Energy sector experts A Punna Rao, V Muralikrishna (FAPSIA), V Srinivas and Malleswara Rao from Printers Association, Damodara Rao (Chamber of Commerce), Venkata Swamy (Rice millers) Srinivas (APDPA), MV Babu (Senior Citizens Association), PRK Reddy (Walkers Association), Narayana Rao (GRK Polavarapu Trust), Kolli Muralikrishna (Lorry Owners Association), S Nagabhushanam (Rotary Club), P Murahari (Citizens Welfare Association), Y Subba Rao (Motor Merchants Association), Y Ramesh (Footwear Industry), Chandrasekhar and MN Patrudu (Pensioners Association), Vedantam Srinivas and VS Ramaraju (Taxpayers Association) and others participated.