Seeking to allay concerns regarding the possibility of yet another hike in power tariff, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the government does not intend to transfer the additional financial burden created by the recent scrapping of long-term power contracts on consumers.
He was also critical of the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC)’s order, which “went against the State’s interests”, when the issue came up for discussion in the Assembly on Thursday.
M. Vincent, MLA, who raised the topic during the Question Hour, appeared to place the blame on the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and the KSERC for the crisis that left the former to purchase power at hefty rates ranging from ₹5.12 to ₹6.34 per unit in place of the electricity that the State used to receive at ₹4.29 a unit under the cancelled agreements. The Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd. (KSEB) incurred daily losses hovering between ₹4 crore and ₹7 crore as a result.
Electricity Minister K. Krishnankutty, who attributed the KSERC order to certain procedural deviations when the contracts were signed in 2014, said the KSEB would have suffered a loss of nearly ₹6,000 crore over 25 years by way of such irregularities. For one, the company had then issued two tenders at different rates within five days to purchase 850 MW of power.
While Mr. Vincent demanded a vigilance investigation against the then KSEB chairman M. Sivansankar, the Minister said a preliminary probe is underway.
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the State faced the twin dangers of requiring to pay huge compensations to the power generators for the cancelled agreements and having to purchase electricity under new deals at exorbitant rates. Under such circumstances, apprehensions are rife that the additional burden incurred by the government will be imposed as surcharge on the public who are already reeling under the impacts of the recent hike in power tariff.
