Asking Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to cancel all power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed with private players while ensuring to meet 4,500 megawatt (MW) shortfall at cheaper rates, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday accused both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of politicizing the issue of fixed charges.
Sukhbir asked the Congress-led Government to provide affordable and dependable round the clock power to Punjabis as was being done by the erstwhile SAD-led Government instead of politicizing the issue of fixed power.
“The issue of fixed charges is being politicized by both Congress and AAP even though they knew that this charge is applicable on private and government thermal plants as well as power purchased from outside the state. While the fixed charge for private thermal plants was Rs 1.50 per unit, it was Rs 2.35 per unit for government thermal plants when they are closed,” he said.
He said that Punjab has paid a fixed charge of Rs 7,000 crore to government thermal plants during the last five years as per State Electricity Regulatory Commission figures.
Asserting that Punjabis wanted cheap power, Sukhbir said that if this was possible by cancelling the PPAs, the same should be annulled; but “the Chief Minister should take the responsibility of covering shortfall of 4,500 MW of power at cheaper rates so that Punjabis do not suffer”.
Sukhbir said that private thermal plants were established after much thought due to the huge shortfall in 2007 which occurred because the then Congress Government did not add a single unit of power leading to overloaded sub stations and massive power cuts of 10 hours daily.
He said that SAD led Government took the decision to make Punjab power surplus and followed a standard PPA document created by the UPA Government to establish captive thermal plants in the private sector. “PPAs were signed to purchase power between Rs 2.86 to Rs 2.89 per unit, the cheapest at the time,” he added.
Blaming that the present Congress Government did not add a single megawatt of power despite knowing that demand was increasing by 500 MW every year, Sukhbir demanded that the Government should immediately withdraw 12 percent electricity duty tax, two percent municipal tax, five percent infrastructure development tax, and cow cess to provide relief to Punjabis who are already suffering due to high power tariffs which have been increased by nearly 40 percent since 2017.