Claiming that there was no shortage of power in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government announced in the Assembly on Friday that the Energy department could consider cheap power tariff once the financial losses ended.
However, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party members staged a noisy walkout from the Assembly, demanding immediate reduction of power tariff.
Replying to a series of questions during Question Hour on Friday, Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma admitted that though several reforms had been initiated in the Energy department which had started yielding results, yet the cash financial gap was around Rs 13,000 crore.
“We can only expect cheap power when the power sector’s loss is wiped out,” he informed the House.
However the energy minister was critical of the previous Samajwadi Party government which signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) at a higher price that led to huge loss to the power sector and resulted in the rise in power tariff.
“The previous government had done PAA at a higher rate between Rs 5.14 and Rs 11.09 per unit, while the present government has reduced the PPA to Rs 2  to Rs 4.19 per unit,” Sharma said.
Leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said that when the government was purchasing power at such a low price then why was it charging the consumer such high tariff and demanded immediate reduction of power charges from consumers.
His demand was supported by BSP leader Lalji Verma and Congress members.
But the energy minister said that the demand for reduction of power tariff could not be accepted. “The cost to provide power to villages is Rs 7.50 per unit but the government is charging just Rs 1.75 per unit from rural consumers,” the minister said.
Sharma further said that during the last three years of the present Bharatiya Janata Party regime, power consumers had increased by 52 per cent indicating that power supply had increased and reforms in power sector were yielding positive results. He also said that UP was generating around 8,700 megawatt of power including over 1,000 generated through solar plants.
Presently, the Energy department is supplying  15,800 MW of power as per demand, of which  7,100 MW was being purchased from outside the state.
Not satisfied with the minister’s reply, the SP and BSP members staged a noisy walkout from the House.