Levy of fuel surcharge a blow to power consumers: Hooda

Leader of Opposition and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday also attacked the Haryana government, stating that it did not penalise or take stringent legal action against APL despite the company refusing to provide electricity. Instead, the government purchased expensive power at the rate of ₹10-11 per unit, he said.

Leader of Opposition and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party government’s decision to levy 47 paise per unit as fuel surcharge adjustment (FSA) on electricity consumers, except the farm sector, in the state. The FSA is an additional amount paid by power distribution companies to generation companies on account of increase in the cost of fossil fuel and is passed on to the consumer.

Leader of Opposition and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the levy of FSA has delivered yet another blow to the consumers, who are already suffering from inflation. (HT File)

Haryana’s power distribution companies recently levied 47 paise per unit FSA on various categories of consumers except the agricultural pump-set (AP) or farm sector consumers with effect from April 1 till June 30, 2024. The levy will be recovered from consumers whose monthly electricity consumption is more than 200 units.

The leader of Opposition, at a briefing, said that the levy of FSA has delivered yet another blow to the consumers, who are already suffering from inflation.

“The government is putting undue burden on the public to benefit private power companies. A typical household spending up to 600 units will now have to pay an extra ₹300 a month,” the former CM claimed.

Accusing the BJP government of going soft on Adani Power Ltd (APL), Hooda said the Haryana government did not penalise or take stringent legal action against APL despite the company refusing to provide electricity. Instead, the government purchased expensive power at the rate of ₹10-11 per unit, he said.

The former CM said that during the Congress tenure, four power generation plants at Hisar, Yamunanagar and Jhajjar were established. He said approval for another of 660 MW units in Yamunanagar was also done during the Congress rule. “However, the BJP government kept delaying it for the last eight years. Instead of setting up a new power plant, the present government stopped the functioning of the already established power plants and increased dependence on private companies,” he said.

Hooda also expressed his displeasure over the non-purchase of wheat in the mandis. He said farmers were worried due to lack of purchase and lifting. “Due to this indecisive attitude of the government, the farmers could not even get the minimum support price (MSP) for mustard,” Hooda said.

The former CM said at many places the stoppage of Meri Fasal, Mera Byora portal also affected procurement operations. Hooda said farmers have complained of crop failure on more than 17 lakh acres due to rains in the last few days. “But girdawari has been done for hardly 10% of the crop,” he said.

The leader of opposition demanded compensation from ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 per acre in view of the loss to the farmers. Along with this, he also sought a bonus of ₹500 per quintal for farmers.