New Delhi: The Delhi government on Friday condemned the hike in power tariffs from February 1. The Aam Aadmi Party government in one of its poll promises had said there will be a 50 per cent cut in the power tariff, but Delhiites will now be paying more.
The Kejriwal government condemned the DERC decision and said such a move should not have been taken when the accounts of private distribution companies are being audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
The government said that the DERC should have waited for the audit report of the CAG and there was no need of showing a tearing hurry to impose this unnecessary burden on the people. "There are a lot of questions about the functioning of private power distribution companies and the government is committed to get to the root of this problem," it said.
The power companies has increased the surcharge and therefore there's an increase in the electricity tariff. BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) have increased surcharge by 8, 6 and 7 per cent respectively.
The move came even as BSES said that the company is hopeful of avoiding a major power cut in Delhi and requested the government to step in to defuse the crisis. BSES sources said bank holding back funds is leading to a payment problem after NTCP, which supplies over 50 per cent of power to the national capital, rejected Delhi government's plea to continue power supply to BSES Yamuna Power Limited. If the crisis continues residents of East Delhi and Central Delhi may face eight to 10 hours of power cuts in February.
NTPC supplies 3175 MW of power which is almost half of the 6000 MW power the city requires.
The subsidy payment from Delhi government has not come in yet and irregularity in payment from customers is adding to the discom's woes. The accumulated revenue arrears is almost Rs 6,200 crore.
NTPC informed the power discom that a power supply cut is imminent if payment is not made on Friday.
Reliance Infra-backed power distribution company BSES Yamuna Power Ltd informed Delhi government that the company was facing serious fund crunch to buy electricity. In a letter to Delhi's Power Secretary Puneet Goel, BYPL sought immediate financial assistance from the government to deal with the "difficult" situation as it was not being able to make payments to various state-run power generators including NTPC and NHPC.
BYPL sought immediate intervention of Delhi government in helping it overcome the situation and urged it to take up the issue urgently with NTPC, NHPC, Ministry of Power and Ministry of Finance.
The BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, which supply power in 70 per cent areas in Delhi, owe around Rs 4,000 crore to Delhi government-run power generation and transmission companies. Both BRPL and BYPL have been maintaining that they are going through difficult financial condition. They have been demanding significant hike in tariff, citing rise in power purchase cost.
According to DERC figures, the private discoms operating in the city have a revenue gap of whopping Rs 19,500 crore.
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