After excise, AAP govt’s ‘power subsidy scam’ to be exposed soon: BJP

The power department had on Tuesday issued directions to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to conduct a special audit of discoms to assess whether the subsidy, on which over Rs 13,500 crore has been spent so far, reached its intended beneficiaries — that is the city’s poor — “in the most transparent and efficient way” for all financial years between 2016 and 2022.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, terming an audit of the scheme by an empanelled auditor “a sham”, alleged that after the “excise policy scam”, the AAP Delhi government was now seen to be caught in the “power subsidy scam”.

“The Delhi government and private companies are equal partners in discoms and since the revelations of the appointment of AAP leaders on their board of directors, a question has arisen whether a part of the money given to discoms is going back to AAP or some of its leaders,” Sachdeva alleged.

“The Kejriwal government had to make this audit recommendation after the Lieutenant Governor started an inquiry…but how is it possible that a private auditor would prepare a fair audit report of the subsidy scam in which Delhi government, Aam Aadmi Party and private companies are involved,” asked Sachdeva.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri sought to argue that had there been a CAG audit, the truth regarding how much the discoms had benefited from stopping power theft and whether these had reached the public as promised would have come to the fore.

“In 2003, when privatisation took place, the theft of electricity in Delhi was more than 60 per cent, but now it has come down to 7-8 per cent only…the DERC had back then announced that all the benefits of stopping power theft would reach the public,” Bidhuri said.

“Kejriwal had said that these companies would be exposed only by getting the CAG audit done. Companies are in profit, but they increase the rate by showing losses with fake balance sheets. The government did not make any effort to get the CAG audit done,” he alleged.

The Delhi government accused the BJP of “talking nonsense” over the issue. “It is astonishing that the BJP is questioning the audit of discoms. Actually, it wants to keep their theft and irregularities under wraps and that is why it is making such nonsensical statements,” Delhi government sources sought to argue.

“The Delhi government has a zero tolerance policy regarding such matters. The audit will reveal everything,” they added.