Hyderabad: The Telangana finance department has asked the energy department why its subsidy should not be cut down, as its supply to the agriculture sector would have been lower in the Rabi season.
According to the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission, the total subsidy promised for 2015-16 was Rs 4,227 crore.
The government agreed to release Rs 354 crore every month as subsidy. Now, the finance department has pointed out that paddy cultivation was substantially lower in the Rabi season due to lack of ground water.
The sowing of all crops including paddy was nearly 32 per cent less compared to the previous year.
The state government had campaigned intensively to dissuade farmers from sowing paddy as the ground water levels were totally depleted. Farmers largely complied, and paddy output fell by 32 per cent.
Consequently, the power supply to agricultural pumpsets was reduced from 7 hours to 6, and in some areas to 5.5 hours.
The finance ministry is now pointing out that if sowing was reduced and so was power supply, the amount that was spent on free power to the agriculture sector should also come down.
It has become a habit for discoms to show in their annual revenue requirement that its losses were mainly due to free supply of power to over 23 lakh agricultural pumpsets.
Both discoms together claim a loss of over Rs 2500 crore. But experts say the consumption estimates are faulty.
The finance ministry’s query in effect questions the basic estimation methodology and it is for the power utilities as well as the energy department to explain, sources said.
