Andhra Pradesh - Cuddapah   

Free power to ryots will cost Transco Rs. 32.40-cr. annually

By M.V. Subramanyam

CUDDAPAH, MAY 16. The free power supply will benefit 66,156 agricultural service-holders and about 1.27-lakh single bulb using domestic consumers (those in the 0-50 unit slab) in Cuddapah district.

The waiver of electricity tariff arrears worked out to Rs. 60 crores, including Rs. 12 crores towards surcharge, carried over since 1989, the Superintending Engineer of the Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd. of Andhra Pradesh, Z. Balasubrahmanyam, told The Hindu on Sunday.

The district has 2,865 agricultural pumpsets within the three HP capacity, 28,698 pumpsets between three and five HP, 29,557 between five and 10 HP and 5,036 pump sets beyond 10 HP capacity. All these categories of farmers could be covered under the free power supply.

The APTransco will have to bear an additional annual financial implication of Rs. 32.40 crores towards free power for agricultural pump sets at the rate of a monthly revenue demand of Rs. 2.70 crores in the district, according to the SE. The revenue realisation from agricultural consumers was around 30 per cent in the past, but had steeply fallen to hardly three per cent in April this year. Of the total of 3,17,762 domestic service connections in the district, those falling under the 0 to 50 units slab worked out to about 1.27 lakhs, who might be considered as single-bulb using households, almost 40 per cent of the total connections.

Citing the example of Chintakommadinne mandal, which was rural-oriented, Mr. Balasubrahmanyam said of the 1,722 domestic connections, about 1,270 fell under the 0-50 units slab. Similar was the position in the rural mandals, where consumers were paying Rs. 1.45 per unit consumed, in addition to customer charges of Rs. 20 each. The present power tariff for agricultural consumers was Rs. 275 per HP up to three HP per annum, Rs. 425 for three to five HP, Rs. 525 for five to 10 HP and Rs. 625 for beyond the 10 HP capcapacitieshe Government had fixed a tariff of 20 paise per unit up to 2,500 units per annum and 50 paise for those consuming in excess of 2,500 units per year, to those opting to fix meters.

Moreover, if they satisfied four parameters like using capacitors, frictionless foot-valves, rigid PVC pipes and ISI certified pump sets, they were offered power at half the rate, but those opting for meters was negligible, the SE stated. There was also no response from the agricultural consumers to the waiver of surcharge on arrears if they repaid the dues by December end, 2003. Transformers of smaller capacity were put up for high-tension consumers in Darjipalle in Vontimitta mandal, Tekurupet in Porumamilla mandal, Thippireddipalle in Pendlimarry mandal and in Kodur, on an experimental basis. Considering the present scale of power supply of a load of 4,55,959 HP, it was imperative to set up an additional 300 transformers to prevent over-loading. Two hundred transformers were sanctioned and available in the district, he stated. He said as many as 680 new transformers were erected in the district during the last 20 months. Nearly 65 per cent of the energy drawn went to agricultural consumers, Mr. Balasubrahmanyam said.

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