NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit alleged on Saturday that the Aam Aadmi Party had “indulged in open loot” by including fixed charges and a pension fund surcharge in the electricity bills and said that Delhiites should not pay for power until the amount collected under these heads were adjusted in the bills. Party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj refuted the accusations.
Diskhit alleged that these components were included in the power bill to favour the power distribution companies. She will lead a delegation to discuss the matter with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday.
On Friday, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari too had alleged that the state government had connived with the power companies in hiking the fixed charges.
Last year, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) restructured the tariff order for 2018-19. It increased the fixed charges for every consumer, but brought down the energy cost and revised the surcharge from 3.7% to 3.8%, designating it for the pension fund for former employees of the power utilities. The reduction in the energy charge is the variable part of an electricity bill and depends on the number of units consumed. The fixed charges, payable even if there is no consumption, ranges from Rs 105 to Rs 150. Another 8% surcharge is levied to part make up the revenue gap.
Dikshit claimed at a press conference that the power companies had collected Rs 7,401 crore from people as fixed charges and pension fund surcharge and said this sum should be adjusted against the consumer bills. “In the name of giving relief to the common people, the AAP government installed lakhs of new power meters to openly benefit the power companies. And then, the fixed charges, which used to be nominal earlier, were increased many times over and the government collected thousands of crores of rupees,” she alleged.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, however, challenged Dikshit to prove that electricity charges were lower in Congress-ruled states. “This silly accusation comes from a person who was Delhi CM for 15 years. During her tenure, electricity charges were hiked every year. AAP government has ensured reduction of power rates to half and retained the unit price for four and a half years,” said Bharadwaj.
On Friday, Tiwari too alleged that “the Kejriwal government is trying to mislead the people in the name of fixed power charges”. Tiwari also demanded that the “Rs 5,000 crore collected by power companies” must be refunded to the people of the city by the state government.
Bharadwaj retorted that “Manoj Tiwari is talking like a kid”. He sarcastically said that only if the central government returned taxes collected in earlier years whenever the income tax slabs were revised would Delhi government do the same.
Diskhit alleged that these components were included in the power bill to favour the power distribution companies. She will lead a delegation to discuss the matter with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday.
On Friday, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari too had alleged that the state government had connived with the power companies in hiking the fixed charges.
Last year, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) restructured the tariff order for 2018-19. It increased the fixed charges for every consumer, but brought down the energy cost and revised the surcharge from 3.7% to 3.8%, designating it for the pension fund for former employees of the power utilities. The reduction in the energy charge is the variable part of an electricity bill and depends on the number of units consumed. The fixed charges, payable even if there is no consumption, ranges from Rs 105 to Rs 150. Another 8% surcharge is levied to part make up the revenue gap.
Dikshit claimed at a press conference that the power companies had collected Rs 7,401 crore from people as fixed charges and pension fund surcharge and said this sum should be adjusted against the consumer bills. “In the name of giving relief to the common people, the AAP government installed lakhs of new power meters to openly benefit the power companies. And then, the fixed charges, which used to be nominal earlier, were increased many times over and the government collected thousands of crores of rupees,” she alleged.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, however, challenged Dikshit to prove that electricity charges were lower in Congress-ruled states. “This silly accusation comes from a person who was Delhi CM for 15 years. During her tenure, electricity charges were hiked every year. AAP government has ensured reduction of power rates to half and retained the unit price for four and a half years,” said Bharadwaj.
On Friday, Tiwari too alleged that “the Kejriwal government is trying to mislead the people in the name of fixed power charges”. Tiwari also demanded that the “Rs 5,000 crore collected by power companies” must be refunded to the people of the city by the state government.
Bharadwaj retorted that “Manoj Tiwari is talking like a kid”. He sarcastically said that only if the central government returned taxes collected in earlier years whenever the income tax slabs were revised would Delhi government do the same.
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