Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav on Sunday said the “Triple Engine” BJP government in Delhi has dealt yet another financial blow on the people of Delhi with a hike in the Power Purchase Agreement Cost (PPAC) surcharge, which will put additional burden on the people.
They are already under tremendous financial stress due to the anti-people actions of the BJP Government, he added.
Levelling these charges, Yadav said the Rekha Gupta government was emulating the corrupt Kejriwal Government by increasing the PPAC surcharge, forgetting the fact that the BJP workers had hit the streets to protest when the Kejriwal Government increased PPAC surcharges to allow the discoms to take undue financial advantage of the power consumers of Delhi.
Yadav said the Rekha Gupta Government should have anticipated the high demand for power during the peak summer months, and should have made the necessary arrangements to meet the power requirements.
Instead, it went along with the sanction of the DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission) to the Discoms to increase the PPAC, which will result in the PPAC surcharge going up from 13.33 per cent to 19.22 per cent in Delhi, Yadav claimed.
He said this hike was in addition to the various surcharges already being charged from the power consumers by Discoms like energy charge, fixed charge, transmission and distribution charge and seven per cent pension fund surcharge.
Yadav said the Aam Aadmi Party leaders were shedding crocodile tears PPAC surcharge hike, as the Kejrwial Government, in collusion with the Discoms, had hiked the PPAC surcharge by 9 per cent on 11 July, 2024, 9 per cent in June 2023, 10 per cent in July 2022 and 6 per cent in October, 2021, and also raised the pension charge by 5 per cent to take it to 7 per cent overall.
Yadav said the PPAC charge has been hiked when the Discoms owe `27,000 crore to the power companies for buying electricity for Delhi.
He said the BJP leaders had loudly proclaimed before the Delhi Assembly elections that if the party comes to power, it will give 300 units of free power to the consumers.
However, the BJP Government has only imposed additional financial burden on the people by showing undue favour to the power distribution companies who have been in any case fleecing the power consumers by imposing various surcharges and issuing inflated power bills, Yadav said.
He also questioned the silence of the BJP Government about the adverse findings in the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report about the Kejriwal Government’s corruption in the power distribution in collusion with Discoms and DERC.
Yadav said ever since the BJP Government came to power in Delhi over three months ago, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and her Cabinet Ministers have added to the financial woes of the people through price increases without bothering to fulfill any of its pre-election promises like `2,500 per month honorarium to every woman in Delhi, but increased cooking gas and milk prices, and excise duty on petrol and diesel, in addition to the prices of vegetables and every other daily use item going up.
