THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State government and the Centre are increasing the public burden through power tariff hike and rise in fuel prices, said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. He added that in the previous budget, finance minister T M Thomas Isaac had slapped an additional burden of Rs 1,784 crore on the people.

“Service charge has been hiked by 5% and government has announced flood cess from August 1. In the latest instance, government has decided to collect Rs 980 crore from the people through power tariff hike,” Chennithala said.

The opposition leader said that a power tariff hike of 11.4% was the highest ever. It is also increasing tariff in all segments including deposit money. At the same time, KSEB is yet to get Rs 2,802.60 crore from defaulters, including government offices, he added.

Chennithala said that if KSEB had recovered this amount from defaulters, there would be no need to hike the tariff. It is penalizing the public for its inefficiency, he said.

He added that after all these steps, the power minister talked about power regulation in the state in the next 10 days if monsoon did not revive its fortunes. He said that this is because there is no sufficient water stored in the dams of the state.