SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday accused Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar of lying claiming that the previous SAD-BJP Government did not bound the State to yearly tariff increase.
Asking Jakhar not to indulge in a “reprehensible” blame-game following the “draconian” increase in power tariffs by his Government, Sukhbir said if the SAD-BJP Government had agreed to a five per cent power hike in 2016 as alleged by him, he should explain why tariffs were lowered in 2016-17.
Stating that Jakhar was indulging in “despicable politics” to please his political masters who managed his win in Gurdaspur by-poll, Sukhbir said: “Why are you lying that the SAD-BJP Government bound itself to a five per cent increase in power tariff in 2016-17IJ The truth of the matter is that we affected a 0.65 per cent decrease in power tariff in 2016.”
“If the SAD-BJP Government did not increase power tariff in 2016-17, why are you making the excuse of a tripartite MoU to justify the drastic 12 per cent increase in domestic tariff for 2017-18IJ” asked Sukhbir.
Categorically stating that there was no binding of the Punjab Government to increase tariffs as stated by Jakhar, he said that the state Congress chief was also lying by making aspersions that SAD-BJP government had bartered away the state’s interests by signing a tripartite agreement.
“In fact, the truth is exactly opposite. The State came under the ambit of UDAY scheme to take advantage of a debt swap offer under which high interest loans of around 11 percent were swapped with low interest loans of around eight percent. Other electricity utilities also took advantage of this scheme. PSPCl gained a direct benefit of Rs 550 crore per year from this debt swap scheme which was passed on to the consumer. The Congress Government has also accrued this benefit but is not passing it on the consumers,” he alleged.