Meghalaya will have its NTPC electricity bill cut after the Union Ministry of Power reallocated 53 megawatts out of 87 from the State to Tamil Nadu.
Celebrating this as a success for the State government while also taking the opportunity to bash the Congress-led government that signed the deal in 2007, Power Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that under the agreement, Meghalaya was paying a fixed charge of Rs 120 crore annually despite not drawing electricity from the grid.
The State was allocated 87MW but the high unit cost meant that Meghalaya chose not to draw any electricity under this agreement from 2015 but was still bound by the fixed annual charge.
“Due to the high cost per unit, Meghalaya has not drawn power from NTPC since 2015 but still had to pay the fixed amount,” Tynsong told reporters today while describing the 2007 deal as “most faulty”.
“I’m so thankful to the government of India for issuing the order where 53MW out of 87MW will be reallocated to Tamil Nadu,” he added.
The State is still hoping to ditch the remaining 34MW of the agreement, which the minister was hopeful of accomplishing.
