Nellore: Leaders of Left parties, Congress, farmers associations and representatives of different people's forums demanded the APSPDCL to address the complaints of consumers before taking any steps to hike the power tariff during a public hearing held by the APERC at Tirupati on Thursday.
Taking strong objection to the SPDCL's proposed tariff hike under its aggregate revenue requirements and retail supply business for 2016-17, the gathering bluntly told the government to bear the entire Rs 488.35 crore revenue gap which the SPDCL is trying to manage through power tariff hike.
They have also demanded that the government evaluate the power purchase agreements (PPA) and scrap the onerous agreements with power plants and also demanded to clear the long pending subsidy dues to power distribution companies immediately.
Reminding that the government has failed to provide nine hour power supply without break in daytime to agriculture, CPI(M) and CPI functionaries Rama Naidu and Kumar Reddy told the SPDCL to first deal with the issue. They have also sought hike in the compensation to the victims of the mishaps besides introduction of reforms in power distribution.
Reacting to their demands, APERC chairman G. Bhavani Prasad, said that the APERC too was against increasing power tariff on the domestic front.
