Power tariff not to be reduced

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 5. Will there be tariff reduction if the targeted income out of internal efficiency improvement is earned?

The Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company (APCPDCL), one of the four Discoms looking after power supply in Hyderabad- Secunderabad and six other districts, has ruled out such a possibility.

At a district level "public debate", organised by the Hyderabad Collectorage here on Monday on the strategy paper on power, all the three superintending engineers incharge of the supply in the Twin Cities, said, the APCPDCL, being the largest among the four Discoms accounting for a half of AP Transco services, load and income, had been given a target of Rs. 250 crores out of Rs. 500 crores under internal efficiency marked for Transco for 2000- 2001. But, this being against the deficit budget for that year, there would not be any chance of tariff reduction even if the entire Rs. 250 crores was realised out of efficiency improvement, they contended.

The figures given by the SEs incharge of the city's Central, South and North operation circles--Mr. A. Hanumantha Rao, Mr. P. Kodanda Ramaiah, and Mr. D. Ramakrishna Rao--in reply to questions by participants showed that the APCPDCL, indeed, had improved efficiency remarkably. The line losses, both technical and commercial, which was of the order of 28.61 per cent in April last, came down to 19.20 per cent by December. In the South circle, the losses fell to 33.15 per cent from the earlier 47.85 per cent.

Mr. Kodanda Ramaiah, told Mr. Owaisi that the 500-MW and Rs. 2,000-crore Sankarpalli power projects contemplated for Hyderabad, had not been shelved as being feared but were being posed for privatisation with an invitation to foreign parties.

Both the 520-MW units at Krishnapatnam are coming up and they have also not been wound up. That of Hindujas planned at Visakhapatnam is not able to take off because the developers are not going beyond a point on reducing unit cost as wanted by the Government.

Mr. A. Padmanabham of ITC, Bhadrachalam representing CII, complained that the tariff for industries which invested in AP Gas Power Corporation had "unjustly" been increased by a rupee per unit, taking the total payable to Rs 2.76 per unit. Ms. N. Hemalatha, secretary, AP Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, made a plea for allowing captive generation with sales tax concession on diesel.

Mr. Hanumantha Rao said, the APCPDCL was strictly implementing arrears collection not sparing even Government departments. The arrears in Hyderabad totalled Rs. 38 crores and were being collected on a warfooting.

Mr. Owaisi asked the Transco not to be meek before the World Bank and wanted it to be wary about the conditionality to phase out subsidies by 2003. Mr. Mahesh Pandey, an industrialist, and Mr. D.V. Rama Raju, a hotelier, spoke.

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