Electricity minister makes power point

CHENNAI: State Electricity Minister R Viswanathan on Wednesday sought to put the erstwhile DMK regime on the mat by saying the present government was buying power at much lower rates as compared its predecessor.He was responding to CPM floor leader A Soundararajan’s observation in the Assembly that the debt burden of the TNEB stood at `45,000 crore for which the State was paying `4,800 crore as interest per month. One of the main reasons for the increasing loss of the TNEB was purchasing power at an exorbitant rate, he said. Attacking the Karunanidhi government for the lack of transparency in its power purchasing policy, Viswanathan said the average rate of power purchased during the DMK regime was Rs 5.50 per unit. Now, the AIADMK government is purchasing power at `3.85 per unit. Despite oscillation of prices, the price would not exceed ` 4.50 per unit, he assured.He claimed that during the DMK regime, power was purchased at `12 per unit. Private companies have been utilising all infrastructure put up by the government as the purchasing policy was favourable. Responding, the minister said the feeding and transmission charges were fixed by the N Electricity Regulatory Authority and not by the government. Co-generation should be made compulsory for private firms, Soundararajan said, adding that approval was given for more than 20 thermal projects in Tuticorin.