Cong seeks white paper on power sector

Thursday, 26/03/2015

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CHANDIGARH: Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Kumar Jakhar demanded a white paper on the performance of power sector as a call attention motion on the concluding day of the budget session on Wednesday.

Terming the availability of cheap power in the state a ‘farce’ even after commissioning of two new privately-owned thermal plants in Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo, Jakhar said the Punjab government had to pay a whopping amount to the thermal plants as fixed charges even if it doesn’t purchase a single unit.

He said the power from these plants, which was touted to be cheaper, is purchased at a high rate of `6.29 per unit.

When the power-purchase agreement was being signed between the state government and the private companies, it was projected that the power would be available at `2.36 per unit from Talwandi Sabo plant, `2.89 per unit from the Rajpura plant and `2.69 per unit from the Goindwal Sahib plant.

“We are suppose to pay `1,800 crore every year to the Talwandi Sabo plant, `1,200 crore to the Rajpura plant and `660 crore to the Goindwal Sahib thermal plant. When these plants started coming up, it was projected that the power would be supplied at cheaper rates then the stateowned projects,” said Jakhar. The Goindwal Sahib plant is yet to be commissioned.

Jakhar alleged that the stateowned power projects had been shut to buy power from private thermal plants. He said the electricity duty in the state was 13% of the power tariff (65 paise per unit) which was among the highest in the country.

He added that the state government had failed to provide rail link to the Rajpura thermal plant due to which the coal charges brought to the plant by road were being imposed on the consumers.

Refuting charges, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the in charge of the power department, said the bidding process for thermal plants in the entire country was the same.

“These plants are like state-owned plants as the entire power generated here is for the state. Besides, the privatelyowned plants have better functioning than the state-owned ones,” Sukhbir informed the House.

On the cost of power in the state, the deputy CM said the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) decides the power tariff. Referring to the cost, he said the hike in power tariff last year was 2.74%, which was much less than the other states.

He said Uttar Pradesh imposed a power tariff hike of 40%, Madhya Pradesh 14% and Delhi 28%. “We hope there will be negligible power tariff hike this time too,” added Sukhbir.