The Congress-led UDF Opposition on Saturday claimed that the Kerala government's decision to hike the electricity tariff caused a huge loss to the KSEB and was aimed "to benefit ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani" by bringing it into the power purchase system in the state.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the long term power purchase agreement signed during the UDF administration in 2016 to buy electricity at rates below Rs 5 per unit was terminated during the LDF rule to facilitate the entry of Adani into this system.

Both leaders said that as a result of the contract termination, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) had to purchase power at rates which were twice or thrice more than what it was earlier, leading to it incurring a huge debt and the common people being saddled with thousands of crores as electricity charges.

Satheesan claimed that the state government's decision led to the debt of KSEB increasing to over Rs 40,000 crore from around Rs 1,000 crore it was during the UDF administration.

The Congress leaders were responding to the Left government's announcement a day ago of increasing electricity tariffs for the 2024-25 financial year by 16 paise per unit, effective from December 5. An additional hike of 12 paise per unit is set to follow in the 2025-26 financial year.

Demanding that the government withdraw the hike, Chennithala said this move makes it clear that the government was hand-in-glove with the power producing companies, especially Adani.

"Adani is the biggest beneficiary of this move. This decision of the government is aimed at bringing Adani into the power purchasing system in Kerala," he claimed.

He also said that he was apprehensive that these moves were allegedly aimed at privatisation of the KSEB by pushing it into a huge debt trap.

He said that now the government was buying electricity at rates between Rs 10 to Rs 14 per unit which was causing a loss of over Rs 12 crore per day to the KSEB.

Chennithala claimed that had the long term agreement continued in operation, by now KSEB would have made a profit of Rs 800 crore and the common people would have got electricity at low rates till 2040.

"However, due to termination of the contract, KSEB is suffering a loss of over Rs 12 crore per day," he contended.

Chennithala also alleged that some of the members of the electricity regulatory commission that cancelled the long-term contract were persons close to the CPI(M).

"This is a huge corruption. It is a wrong decision intended to loot the people of Kerala and enable Adani to make a profit. Therefore, the government should withdraw from it," he said.

The latest tariff hike is the fifth such increase under the Pinarayi government's tenure since it came to power in 2016.

State Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty had on Friday said that the tariff increase was minimal and will not affect the household budgets of common people.

The tariff hike applies to all consumers using more than 40 units of electricity per month with a connected load exceeding 1,000 watts.

Fixed charges for both single-phase and three-phase connections have also been increased.

Following the decision to hike power tariffs, the Congress announced a massive protest against the same.

KPCC Chief K Sudhakaran had described the decision to hike electricity rates as "extremely unfair and condemnable." The KPCC chief had also said that District Congress Committees will organise a flaming torch rally across the state on Saturday evening.

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