Flaying the opposition over “fraudulent” statements on power tariff hike while also lashing out at the media for not checking on facts, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday claimed that the State still had the lowest power tariff in north, barring Himachal Pradesh.
“Contrary to the false opposition charges and the deceptive statements carried by a section of the media, the power tariff in Punjab continues to be the lowest in the northern region, except for Himachal Pradesh,” said Capt Amarinder.
lambasting the opposition for misleading the people with their false statements on this count, he also flayed the media for carrying “unsubstantiated” charges without checking the facts. “The facts clearly show that barring Himachal, Punjab remains at the lowest rung in terms of power tariff across categories in the northern part of the country, despite the marginal hike announced yesterday by PSERC,” he added.
Official data showing the power tariff across various categories in all the northern states categorically disproves the opposition charges, said the Chief Minister, adding that the blatantly false statements by these leaders were totally contrary to the facts and were obviously politically motivated.
Instead of providing constructive opposition in the interest of the state and its people, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been pursuing a negative agenda to undermine the development work being done by the Congress government in order to mislead the people, said Capt Amarinder.
He said that such fraudulent statements and political gimmickry will only alienate the people further from these parties, which had been already been electorally rejected, first during the state assembly polls and more recently in the Gurdaspur lok Sabha by-poll, the Chief Minister said.
Citing data, official spokesperson from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) pointed out that in the domestic category, Punjab’s power rate, after revision, stood at Rs 6.03 per unit against Rs 6.42 in Haryana, Rs 7.65 in Delhi, Rs 6.98 in Rajasthan and Rs 6.31 in Uttar Pradesh.
Himachal Pradesh was the only state in the region providing domestic power at a lower rate of Rs 4.70 per unit. In fact, the rate was much higher even in other major states of the country, including Maharashtra (Rs 9.91 per unit) and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 6.63/unit) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs 6.94/unit).
Similarly, the NDS or commercial power rate in Punjab now stands at Rs 7.34 per unit, as compared to neighbouring Haryana (Rs 8.76 per unit), Delhi (Rs 12.21 per unit), Rajasthan (Rs 8.94 per unit) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 11.37 per unit), while Himachal Pradesh provides commercial power at Rs 6.75 per unit).
The rate in this category for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh is, respectively, Rs 12.60 per unit, Rs 8.84 per unit and Rs 10.21 per unit).
In Industrial category, the subsidized rate in SP has been capped by the Punjab government at Rs 4.99 per unit, with the rate in MS and lS industries also being subsidised and frozen at Rs 5 per unit, as already announced by the Chief Minister.
In Haryana, the rates for SP, MP and lS industry types are Rs 6.87, Rs 8.50 and Rs 8.14 per unit. The respective per unit rates for Delhi are Rs 10.95, Rs 12.39 and Rs 10.09.
“Further, the government has also raised the night rebate for industry from Re one to Rs 1.25 to further incentivise power saving through reduced consumption at night-time,” he added.
Significantly, Punjab is offering free power in the agriculture category, in addition to free power up to 200 units per month for SC DS, Non-SC BPl DS and BC DS consumers with connected load up to one kW.
The comparative rates, as provided above, factor in the Punjab conversion factor, as approved by the Commission, to convert the kVAh tariff in all the states to kWh tariff. Also, the two-part tariff in various states has been converted into single-part tariff by taking the Punjab Utilization Factor into account.
Govt has played fraud with industrial consumers: SAD
Demanding immediate withdrawal of “draconian” power tariff hike, the SAD president Sukhbir Badal said that the Congress government had yet again deceived the people by increasing tariff for both domestic and industrial supply even as it was making promises of supplying cheap power to all categories including the industrial sector at Rs five per unit.
“Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had made an announcement one month after assuming power that all consumers would be supplied power at the rate of Rs five per unit. However, the government did not communicate this decision to the PSERC. Instead the state electricity utility, PSPCl, asked for an increase in power tariff. The same has been approved by the PSERC today,” said Sukhbir.
Asking the Congress Government to explain why it was lying and deceiving the people by saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite, Sukhbir said that the Sate cabinet had approved power supply for industrial sector at Rs 5 per unit only one week back and now the entire industry had been burdened with an unbearable increase between 8.50 to 11.88 per cent.
“What is tragic is that the power tariff increase is the most for small industrial units (11.88) percent. This will effectively kill the small industrial sector which is already passing through a challenging phase”, he added.
SAD president said that domestic consumers who had been promised cheaper power both before and after the assembly elections by the Congress had also been betrayed today as it has been hiked by an unprecedented 12 per cent.
Besides this the government has already implemented a municipal tax equivalent to two per cent of power bills in municipal areas, he said adding that all this has hit and common man who has also been hit by other charges including increase in external development charges.
He also pointed out that if the electricity duty of 18 per cent was also taken into consideration, the power tariff hike would increase further across all categories.
AAP flays power tariff hike, demands rollback
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday flayed the hike in power tariff in Punjab while demanding its immediate rollback. AAP MlA and the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira said that the State Government should not implement this “huge retrospective” increase in power rates imposed by the regulatory body. “The hike in electricity charges will add to the woes of ordinary people who are already facing steep inflation,” he said, demanding immediate rollback.
Tariff hike Congress govt’s ‘Diwali Gift’ to people: BJP
Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday flayed Capt Amarinder-led Congress government in the state for betraying the people of the state by announcing a power tariff hike which it termed as ‘huge’ and ‘unbearable.’
BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh said that the Gurdaspur bye-election result has gone to the head of the Chief Minister, who has assumed that now he was in a position to blatantly take anti-people decisions.
The decision would hit domestic consumers, traders and industrialists hard as they would have to shell out 12 percent more in the form of tariff hike and two percent still more as ‘Navjot Singh Sidhu Tax’.