In another attempt to douse off the criticism being faced by the Government for power tariff hike, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Tuesday claimed that Haryana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) implemented the decision to increase power tariff taken by the Cabinet of the previous Government.
He said that given the present scenario in power generation and prevailing market across the country, another hike in power tariff is unlikely during the remaining tenure of the present Government.
"Haryana is a power surplus State which has 14 power generation plants of its own. Besides, electricity is also received from 51 other sources under Central and other agreements. In past days, the On the initiatives of the present government, the HERC has given relief to consumers," he said addressing a news conference here.
He said that power companies even today are under a huge debt of 29000 crore, and government is trying to reduce the burden by different modes.
Clearing the air on the issue of offering power from the NTPC plant to other states, Manohar lal said that it was just an attempt to reduce the fiscal burden of the power discoms as the power generation in the state is already surplus and barring places where certain infrastructural issues are yet to be addressed, power is being supplied 24 hours.
He said that in the market, power is available between at rates between Rs 1 to Rs 8, so it is being felt to reduce the fiscal burden of power discoms by purchasing cheap power from the open market then generating it from own sources at higher rates.
He said that Haryana has 65 power utilities at its disposal where from cheap power can be purchased and 14 plants where state can generate power for its own use or for selling. He said that Haryana is getting power at an average price of Rs.3.95 per unit while it costs Rs 5.18 per unit from the Jharli power plant, thus to reduce losses and to bring down cost of power for the consumers government has offered to surrender the idle capacity and it is not a new initiative, such offers had been made by the previous government also. He said that the offer has been made for one year only and if next year the government feels more
requirements then the offer may be discontinued.
On a query, whether government would enquire into the power purchase agreements of previous government, CM replied that the power market in the country has been quite confusing, and power rates are fluctuating thus costly power purchase cannot be always taken to be a mala fide, if such purchase was a bona fide that is not to be subjected to probe but if a mala fide comes across then it would be probed.
Talking on the issue of closing down the power generation in Panipat Thermal Plant, Khattar said that the first 4 units were more than 30 years old and rendered unviable and worn out. These units are virtually lying futile for many years, and now the government was considering whether to construct new power generation facility at the same place or to construct an 800 unit plant in Jharkhand.
Refusing the charges of forcing the power tariff payers to pay for the non-payers too, CM said that government is taking steps to make people pay their power bills regularly but it was wrong to say that payers have to bear the brunt of losses, on the account of non-payers, He said that such losses are incurred by the government. He also informed that Haryana government has accepted the UDAY scheme in principle and under this screse 75 percent debt of the power companies will be owned by the government.ana government has accepted the UDAY scheme in principle and under this screse 75 percent debt of the power companies will be owned by the government.