In a statement, Thangamani said that despite the Madras High Court having given a categorical order on the Tangedco bill calculation for the COVID-19 lockdown period, DMK president MK Stalin continues to level baseless allegations on meter reading and calculation methods adopted by the utility.

DMK has announced a protest against the high power bills on Tuesday. “Tangedco never tried to earn profit by charging the consumers in the higher tariff slab or distributing power to the domestic consumers with an intention to earn a profit. No government would try to earn profit through domestic consumers,” the minister, who recovered from COVID-19 on Monday, said. He also pointed out that the electricity tariff for the domestic consumers in the State is much less than the cost of the generation and also cheaper when compared to the neighbouring states and some have even hiked their tariffs.

Thangamani said that the State government has paid a subsidy of Rs 11,512 crore in the last four years, which is highest in the country. Responding to the DMK’s demand for providing relief to domestic consumers like in Kerala and Maharashtra, he said that no State in the country is providing the first 100 units of power free for the residential consumers.

“About 70 lakh consumers who were consuming less than 100 units were not being charged by the utility at all. Whereas Kerala is providing 80 units free during the COVID-19 period, while Maharashtra has provided five to seven per cent incentive in the bills,” he said, noting that domestic consumers using 300 units would pay a bill of Rs 500 in Tamil Nadu while a consumer in Kerala and Maharashtra would be paying Rs 1,165 and Rs 1,776 respectively for using same units of energy. He accused the DMK of wilfully hiding the fact of huge subsidies being provided by the Tamil Nadu government while citing the examples of State providing minimal support.