Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Free power not scrapped, clarifies Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Sept. 23. As political parties and farmers' fora raised an outcry over reported withdrawal of free power supply for agriculturists, the Electricity Minister, Nainar Nagendran, today maintained that there was no move to charge tariff for farm pumpsets.

``The free supply for farm connections would continue and there is no move to review the scheme,'' he told the media at the Secretariat here.

Reacting to a spate of media reports on withdrawal of the scheme and protest statements from agitated farmers associations, the Minister clarified that neither the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board nor the Government had issued any order scrapping the scheme, on which the State spends an estimated Rs. 2000 crores annually.

Later, an official release said the Public Works department had sought waiver of tariff for some of the power connections under its lift irrigation scheme in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. The TNEB which considered the plea, decided to charge a concessional tariff of Rs. 250 per horsepower for one year, on a par with the charges for connections provided to farmers under the self-financing scheme.

The concession would be provided if they paid the three-year tariff dues at the new rates. All farmers coming under the low-tension lift irrigation scheme would be charged Rs. 250 per horsepower.

Officials said that as of now, as many as 15 lakh free power connections had been provided to 80 lakh farmers.

A subsidised annual tariff of Rs. 250 per horsepower was being charged for about 1.5 lakh connections which came under the self-financing scheme to farmers who sought the allotment on a priority basis.

The TNEB officials say the Government spends about Rs.2,000 crores annually for free power supply

However, the exact quantum of power distributed to farmers is not known as most of the pumpset connections are not metered. Hence, the TNEB is now planning a sample survey of farm consumers in a couple of districts to assess the electricity flow to pumpsets.

However, all new 40,000 connections to be provided to pumpsets this year would be installed with meters.

Asked when the TNEB would file a tariff revision petition covering domestic and industrial consumers, the Minister said the Government was yet to take a decision.

However, according to the pact signed by the State government with the Union Power Ministry for accelarated power reforms programme, the revision petition has to be filed by this month.

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