Chennai: Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has said the claim of Tamilnadu having turned into a power surplus State over the last few years was inaccurate.
Presenting his maiden budget in the State Assembly, Thiagarajan, in a veiled attack on the previous AIADMK regime, said almost 2,500 MW of power has had to be bought on the power exchanges to meet peak needs.
“Thus the statement that Tamilnadu turned a power surplus State over the last few years is inaccurate,” he added.
He said under the ADB assisted Chennai Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC) Power Sector Investment Project, a strategic study of TANGEDCO and TANTRANSCO’s governance and financial restructuring will be undertaken.
The government will act speedily on the findings of the study to revamp the electricity utilities and to save them from collapse, he said, while announcing that a total of 17,980 MW of power generation capacity will be added through own generating stations in the next 10 years.
He said a total provision of Rs 19,872.77 crore has been made in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22 towards subsidies to free supply of agricultural power, domestic supply and for take over of losses of TANGEDCO.