In a big relief to the power consumers, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ruled out the possibility of the hike in power tariff for the current fiscal 2021-22.
Chief Minister said here on Saturday that there will be no hike in the power tariff as the state’s economy has already been adversely affected by the second wave of the pandemic and subsequent state wide lockdown.
CM said this after paying tributes to the former prime minister Chowdhary Charan Singh on his death anniversary.
Yogi Adityannath on Friday had presided over a review meeting of the energy department and directed for maintaining status quo.
CM said the government is committed for serving the people during the pandemic and at this juncture, it will not be prudent to hike the power tariff. During the little over four year regime of Yogi Adityanath the power tariff has been revised twice by 27 per cent. First hike was 17 percent in November 2017 and second was in 10 percent in September 2019.
As per the existing legal framework, even if the power regulator , the UP State Electricity Regulatory Commission in its tariff order allows the hike in tariff, the power utility , the UP Power Corporation Limited , cannot enforce it without the approval of the state government. UPPCL is wholly owned PSU of the UP government.
Mr Avadesh Verma, chairman of the UP Power consumer forum has welcomed the announcement of the chief minister and said its big relief for the power consumers and the UPPCL should also announce Covid relief for the consumers too.
