CM's reply on power tariff hike deferred

By R.J.Rajendra Prasad

HYDERABAD, AUG. 11 The debate on the hike on power tariff in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Thursday and Friday was a tame affair and the reply of the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has been postponed. Since the Annual Budget is to be presented on Monday, the reply to the debate would come only on Wednesday.

It was earlier expected that the debate would end today, with the CM's reply, but the visit of the Congress(I) President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, to Hyderabad to address a convention of District Presidents of National Students Union of India, affected Congress members' attendance in the House.

Dr. M.V. Mysoora Reddy was the main speaker for the Congress. For the treasury benches, Mr. Gorantla Butchiah Chowdhary, spearheaded the attack against the Congress leaders. The two leaders made personal allegations. Dr. Mysoora Reddy suddenly raised his voice to demand a roll-back due to the ``unanimous'' demand of the public.

Nothing new emerged in the debate, except trading of charges. The Congress members freely levelled allegations of corruption and kickbacks against the Chief Minister while Mr. Chowdhary paid back the compliment by levelling charges against Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, who at one stage, got up to ask whether the debate was on his personality and personal character or on the power tariff.

On Wednesday, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy was backed in highlighting the problem of power tariff hike by the secretaries of the CPI and the CPI (M), Mr. S. Sudhakara Reddy and Mr. B.V. Raghavulu.

The annual revenue requirement of the TRANSCO suddenly jumped by about 30 per cent in one year, (to Rs. 9,233 crores this year as per TRANSCO's estimate), and after allowing for efficiency gains and variable cost adjustment, the APERC accepted the figure of Rs. 8,517 crores. The TRANSCO said that its revenue at pre-June tariff came to Rs. 5,436 crores, leaving a gap of Rs. 3,080 crores.

One expected the elected members to question these figures, especially about the reasons for the escalation while the Andhra Pradesh GENCO and the Andhra Pradesh TRANSCO were acknowledged to have been efficiently run till now. The Government would then have to do a lot of explaining to convince the House on the need for the tariff increase.

The Government, however, does not take the demand for a referendum on tariff increase seriously, because nowhere is there any public approval for any hike, leave alone a stiff hike, but Governments everywhere have to levy taxes and increase rates. The call of the Opposition to refrain from paying bills till the tariff is rolled back as a democratic right also is not convincing.

But the tendency in these debates is for the issues to get diffused, and allegations and counter allegations to hold the sway.

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Section  : Southern States
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