KSEBOA - KSEB Officers' Association

Very soon people of Andhra Pradesh will have to cough up more money to pay their monthly power bills, though the State Cabinet vetoed the proposal of the State Electricity Commission (ERC) to hike electricity charges for now.

According to sources, the State government has firmed up its earlier decision to increase the electricity tariff for those consumers whose power consumption exceeds 100 units a month in order to reduce the gap between the revenue and expenditure of the power utilities in the State. The hike is likely to be between 10 and 30 per cent.

Enough indications were available to this regard soon after the marathon meeting of the AP Cabinet, held here on Monday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Briefing media on the decisions taken by the AP Cabinet, IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said, "The Cabinet has discussed the issue of power tariff hike at length. If it is necessary, the hike will be in such a manner that it would not be a burden on the poor."

According to him, the government estimated that 58,191 million units of electricity is required for the State in the coming financial year, 2015-16. The State government needs Rs 30,300 crore either to generate or procure this much quantity of power. But, the current revenue of the power utilities in the State is Rs 22,592 crore only. That means, there is a deficit of Rs 7,716 crore.

Source- Indian Express