People need relief during festive season, but they are burdened: Harish Rao on Telangana electricity charges hike

HYDERABAD

Deputy Floor Leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the Telangana Assembly and former minister T. Harish Rao has strongly opposed the proposed increase in electricity charges in the name of true-ups and said the government was forcing an additional burden of ₹5,420 crore on consumers.

Besides making people, particularly the farming community, suffer from power cuts, they are burdened with hike in the power charges. During Dasara and Diwali, the government should have given people some relief. Instead, it has increased the burden, he said addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Tuesday (October 6, 2026)

The Congress government pushed the power sector into financial difficulties through poor management and is now trying to make consumers pay for those mistakes, he alleged. Mr. Rao recalled that during the BRS regime, the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission had proposed true-up charges of ₹12,718.40 crore for the period from 2016-17 to 2021-22. But, former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao did not allow the burden to be passed on to consumers.

Stating that the previous BRS Government had invested heavily in strengthening the State’s power sector, Mr. Rao said Telangana had 7,778 MW installed capacity of power generation before 2014 and it was increased to 19,450 MW by 2023-end. The transmission network was also expanded significantly, with new substations, transmission lines and transformers.

Mr. Rao said the BRS government added major generation capacity through the Kothagudem, Bhadradri, Yadadri and Bhupalapally thermal power projects along with additional solar power capacity. But, they were not being operated at their full capacity due to insufficient coal and other problems.

Harish Rao alleges moves to privatise Telangana power utilities

The BRS leader also opposed the reported move to dilute 26% of TG-Transco and alleged that the Congress Government moved towards privatisation of TG-Transco, TG-Genco, Singareni and Discoms. He appealed to electricity employees to oppose the privatisation proposals and demanded that the government immediately withdraw them.

“Power cuts are proof of the government’s failure. Higher electricity bills are proof of its anti-people policies. The ₹5,420 crore burden must be withdrawn immediately and the government should bear the cost instead of passing it on to consumers”, Mr. Rao demanded.