Dr.Thomas (Special Correspondent)
Previous state BJP, and current central BJP governments are responsible for the hike in electricity rates:
Yediyurappa’s statement that electricity rates have increased seems to be a criticism of their previous BJP government.
KERC had presented a proposal to increase the rates in front of the previous BJP government in March, which was approved by the BJP government and on May 12 – the day before the election results – and KERC implemented the new rates retrospectively from April 1.
Let me give another clarification in this regard.Earlier there were four slabs regarding tariff,now it has been reduced to 2 slabs.
From 0 to 50 units Rs.4.15, from 50 to 100 units Rs. 5.60,from 100 to 200 units Rs.7.15 and for consumption above 250 units Rs.8.20 per unit.
This has been revised and now Rs.4.75 per unit from 0 to 100 and Rs 7 per unit is being charged for consumption above 101.
As our government is giving free electricity up to a maximum of 200 units by taking into account the average electricity consumption of the user for the previous year and adding 10% to it,we have prevented that burden from affecting 1.58 crore registered families of the state even though your own government has increased the rate.
The Union government implemented a new rule Electricity (Timely Recovery of Costs due to Change in Law) Rules in 2021.
According to this rule, the Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment (FPPCA) rate should be levied on the consumers without being borne by the state governments.
Accordingly,KERC,on March 13,2023 when the BJP government was in power,decided to go ahead with this with effect from April 1,2023.
But since the Election Code of Conduct was in force in April,it started collecting the dues from May 12.
Due to these two reasons the electricity rate has increased in the state which was clearly the doing of the previous state BJP government and the central BJP government.
Yediyurappa has alleged that there is a shortage of electricity and the government has not taken any action to solve it.
The farmers are being supplied with 5 hours of continuous electricity in three shifts.Purchase of 300 MW from Uttar Pradesh and 600 MW from Punjab has been notified and the process is underway.
Implementation of Section 11 of the Electricity Act,by which all power generation units in the state have been ordered to produce maximum power and supply it to the state grid.
Thermal power units of the state have been restarted. Action has been taken to get 15 lakh metric tonnes from all coal companies.
Actions have been taken to purchase 1,300 MW of electricity on a short-term basis.Actions have been taken to start operations in gas power generation units of KPCL.
As a long-term effort to solve the power problems, steps are being taken to set up an additional 300 MW solar park at Pavagada and 500 MW at Kalaburagi.
Steps are being taken to start a captive coal mine at Chhattisgarh under private/joint investment.When our government came to power in 2013,the power generation capacity of the state was 14,825 MW,by 2018 we have increased it to 26,025 MW.
During the previous BJP government,as chief ministers, ministers and MLAs all went behind the 40% commission,instead of increasing the production capacity,it became lower than before.
