Team Herald
The Opposition benches on Friday grilled Power Minister Milind Naik over the hike in electricity duty (ED) charges and the failure of the government in utilizing the ED funds for creating electricity infrastructure along with providing quality power supply. The minister’s failure to satisfy the legislators, forced Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to intervene in the matter.
Defending the decision to hike the power tariff and the ED charges, Parsekar said power tariff in Goa is the lowest in the country despite the State being dependent on the national grid for power allocation. Naik also said that the ED charges, hiked in 2012, are as per the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) norms. “ED charges are applicable since 2008. From 2008 till date an amount of Rs 790 crore has been collected by way of ED, of which Rs 619 crore has been transferred to Electricity development fund and balance amount Rs 170 crore is yet to be transferred,” he said.
Naik said that infrastructure worth Rs 200 crore has been completed while works worth Rs 400 crore are in the pipeline.
Earlier, while tabling the question Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai asked why the government has to charge ED, when it charges infrastructure tax. “In the name of infrastructure, multiple charges and taxes are imposed on the common man,” he said.
