According to the Minister, under the ToD policy, the Center plans to increase electricity tariffs by 20% for commercial and industrial establishments and 10% for other categories of consumers
Published Date – Sun, 26 Mar 23 at 07:35pm
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Hyderabad: Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy has objected to the Centre’s move to implement a time-of-day (ToD) tariff policy, saying it would overburden the state’s businesses and domestic consumers.
Under the “time of day” (ToD) electricity tariff, consumers will have to pay more for electricity used during peak hours and less for electricity used during off-peak hours.
Addressing the media in Suryapet on Sunday, the minister said that under the ToD policy, the center plans to increase electricity tariffs by 20 percent for commercial and industrial establishments and 10 percent for other categories of consumers. He said the decision would make electricity expensive and place an additional burden on consumers.
The minister said the ToD was introduced to discourage people from using electricity during peak hours.
“This is nothing but a game plan to disenfranchise poor and middle class consumers from quality rights. The Telangana government will oppose the Centre’s move and if implemented, the government will not pass the burden on to consumers,” he said.
Pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge during the 2014 election campaign to provide electricity at affordable prices to all, he said Modi came to power and started raising electricity prices to make them unaffordable for ordinary people.
He noted that while Discoms had proposed to charge consumers Rs 1,271.84 crore for the adjustment, the state government had decided to pay it. He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had not raised the electricity tariff considering the financial difficulties of the people of the state.
