PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that people will have to bear the ‘small hike’ in power tariff.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Mantralaya, Porvorim, Sawant said, “Rs 2,000 crore have been spent on power infrastructure during my tenure. If people want good infrastructure and uninterrupted power supply, then they will have to be ready to pay a little more,” he said adding that there was no power outages in the State.
The Chief Minister further went on to claim that the power tariff hike will not affect the common domestic consumer much as their power bills will be increased by hardly Rs 8 to 10. He however conceded that the hike will affect commercial consumers.”
According to Sawant, it is the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) that decides on the power tariff and not the government.
Sawant went on to claim that if the State government continues to give subsidy on power bills, then the Central government will not give the State subsidy, saying that the State had excess money.
