PANAJI
Sidestepping the intense criticism of the power tariff hike and the Opposition’s demand for its roll back, CM Pramod Sawant on the contrary defended it saying the hike is minimal for the common citizen and rolling it back could affect future central funding for the State’s power infrastructure.
Sawant who was responding to media queries related to the criticism of the power tariff hike and the Opposition’s demand to roll it back said the hike is minimal and power costs were much higher in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Sawant said the tariff hike will have to be borne as the State government continuing to subsidise power consumers could affect future Central government funding of the State’s power sector.
“It is not much. Just about 60 to 90 paise per unit. Only for the commercial and industrial consumers it is a bit higher,” he said, adding that it will help the State in its bid to get central funding of up to Rs 2500 crore soon, he added.
“In the five years that I have been Chief Minister already Rs 2000 cr has been spent on upgrading power infrastructure including underground cabling,” Sawant said, adding that plans are afoot to invest another Rs 3,000 crore for additional power infrastructure.
Sawant also pointed out that power tariff is not solely the State government’s domain but is finalised by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC).
Power used to cost Rs 1.75 per unit for the domestic consumer before the power tariff hike became effective earlier this week. Now, with the hike it will cost Rs 1.88 and the increase will be computed into the bills to be issued in July.
