AP to measure farm power usage
Meters to be fixed on agri pumpsets, reading to be sent to farmers; state will pay power utility
THE PILOT project in one district will be completed before December 31 and efforts would be made to implement the project throughout the state from the 2021-2022 financial year.
Reeling under severe financial crisis and committed to implementing populist schemes, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to take a political gamble and implement drastic reforms to avail additional borrowings of `15,000 crore in the current fiscal.
To begin with, the government on Tuesday announced that meters would be fixed to all agricultural pump sets and the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme would be implemented wherein power subsidy would be paid to farmers who will pay the distribution companies.
The pilot project in one district will be completed before December 31 and efforts would be made to implement the project throughout the state from the 2021-2022 financial year. The Chief Minister himself may get ready to bite the bullet by implementing the pilot project in his native YSR Kadapa district.
Ironically, energy secretary N. Srikanth brought down the number of agriculture power connections in the state by more than a lakh. While the budget and economic survey put the agriculture connections at 18.72 lakh, the energy secretary in Tuesday’s order mentioned 17.55 lakh.
Official sources told Deccan Chronicle that the power sector reform would be followed by levying of user charges for more services and enhancement of charges in urban local bodies. The public distribution system too will witness reforms, sources added. The Centre has relaxed the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and permitted states to borrow up to five per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) against the present limit of three per cent. It, however, insisted the states introduce reforms in power, urban local bodies, PDS sectors and ease of doing business to avail the 1.5 per cent enhanced limit.
Earlier, the state government had proposed to give an undertaking to implement reforms but the Centre did not agree and insisted that the reforms should be put in place to avail the additional borrowing. “We desperately need additional borrowing because we have been quickly exhausting the permitted level of borrowing to meet the expenditure of the CM’s pet populist scheme Navaratnalu,” sources said.
YSRC leaders, however, were apprehensive about the move which they say would instil fear among farmers that the government at a later date might link the free power to consumption. The energy secretary also made it clear that meters would be fixed and reading would be sent to farmers every month. The government will deposit the subsidy amount in exclusively created accounts for the farmers, and immediately transfer the money to discoms from there without farmers’ intervention, he added.