Reacting sharply to the hike in the Power Purchase Agreement Cost (PPAC) surcharge, Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said that the “triple-engine” government of the BJP has put an additional financial burden on the people of the national capital.

He accused the government of acting against the interests of the people of Delhi who are already struggling with financial strain.

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This way, he said the CM Rekha Gupta-led BJP government was emulating the corrupt Kejriwal government. He reminded the saffron party that its workers had hit the streets when the AAP dispensation increased the PPAC surcharge in favour of the discoms.

The Delhi Congress chief said anticipating the high demand for power during the peak summer, the BJP government should have made necessary arrangements to meet the requirements. Instead it went along with the sanction of the DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission), hence the PPAC increased from 13.33 per cent to 19.22 per cent.

He said the hike is in addition to the various surcharges already being levied from the consumers by distribution companies like energy charge, fixed charge, transmission and distribution charge and seven per cent pension fund surcharge.

The Congress leader accused the previous AAP government of colluding with the discoms to hike 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.

He said that the PPAC charge has been hiked at a time when the discoms owe Rs 27,000 crore to the power companies for buying electricity for Delhi.

He reminded the BJP of its promise to give 300 units of free power to the consumers. Forget about free power, their government has imposed an additional financial burden on the people, he lamented.

He also questioned the silence of the BJP government about the adverse findings in the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report about the then Kejriwal Government’s corruption in the power distribution in collusion with Discoms and DERC.

The Delhi Congress chief also alleged that since coming to power three months ago, the BJP government, including the CM 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.

He pointed out that prices of cooking gas, milk, excise duty on petrol and diesel, in addition to the prices of vegetables and every other daily use item have gone up in Delhi.