Gujarat: BJP, Cong argue over power purchase deal

The state government said that the supplementary agreement was owing to changed coal market scenario, while the Congress alleged that the state government benefited APL under the guise of increased rates of coal and paid it additional Rs 2,178 crore.

The issue came up during the Question Hour when a starred question of Congress MLA from Dhandhuka constituency Rajesh Gohil was taken up for discussion.

In reply to Gohil’s query, Minister of State for Energy Mukesh Patel informed that the state government entered into a 25-year agreement with APL in 2006-’07 to purchase power. Subsequently, the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) did a supplementary agreement with APL to revise the tariff.

Participating in the discussion, senior Congress legislator and party’s chief whip in the House CJ Chavda said that the average production capacity of 15 government-owned power stations in Gujarat is around 9,000 MW.

He further alleged that against the production capacity of around 9,000 MW power, these power stations are producing only around 3,000 MW. Chavda alleged that by revising the power tariff in the supplementary agreement, the state government caused benefit of crores of rupees to the private player.

Minister Patel said that the government was purchasing power from private players since the price of coal is turning out to be very costly due to transport cost. He also added that process was on to upgrade the old power stations of the state government.

In reply to a question from BJP MLA from Ellisbridge constituency of Ahmedabad Rakesh Shah, the minister said that in the past four years, the Gujarat government has not bought more than 14 per cent power from APL. Giving out figures, he said that between 2018 and 2021, the government bought seven per cent, 14 per cent, eight per cent and five per cent power respectively from APL.

Senior Congress member Punja Vansh asked the amount paid to APL under the revised supplementary agreement and under the circumstances it was revised.

Patel said that the supplementary agreement was sanctioned by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and that Rs 2,171 crore was paid to APL for purchasing 17,681 million unit electricity.

Cabinet Minister for Energy Kanu Desai intervened and said, “The question is whether we give power to farmers or not. If we want to give (power to farmers) then we need to make amendments (to the agreement).”

He added that the revision of power rates under the supplementary agreement was necessary due to dearth of coal in the international markets and change in coal policy of Indonesia, which is a major coal hub. He also added that the share of Adani in Gujarat’s total purchase is merely seven to eight per cent.

Senior Congress member Paresh Dhanani alleged that when the Gujarat government did an advance agreement with APL for 25 years to get power while giving the latter some facilities, the former ended up paying Rs 2,178 crore extra.

In reply, Kanu Desai said that the cost of power generation in state-owned stations is around Rs 4.76 per unit and the government is buying power from APL at much lower rate of Rs 3.39 per unit.

During the discussion, Cong-ress members rose on their seats a number of times. At one point, they started raising slogans agai-nst Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the Ques-ti-on Hour, senior BJP member Bhu-pendrasinh Chudasama raised a Point of Order and took objection to the slogans raised by opposition members, terming it insulting. Chudasama and BJP chief whip Pankaj Desai dema-nded an apology from the opposition members over the slogans. Speaker Nimaben Acharya said she would check the record of the proceedings and will pass an order on the Point of Order on Thursday.