Desai claimed that in response to a series of inquiries from Congress MLAs regarding the procurement of power from these corporate entities, the state government paid Adani Power Rs 2,760 crore in 2021 for 5,589 million units and Rs 5,400 crore in 2022 for over 6,000 million units. The state government paid Tata Power Rs 2,751 crore in 2021 for 7,315 million units, and Rs 6,033 crore in 2022 for 10,446 million units.
The data suggested per unit cost of Rs 2.83 paid to Adani in January 2021 went up to Rs 8.83 per unit in December 2022 (provisional). Similarly, Tata Power charged Rs 4.92 per unit from the government in 2022 against Rs 1.80 in January 2021. Desai said the per unit cost of electricity went up after 2018 due to “exponential rise” in the price of imported coal, which had forced such power generators to shut their plants in Gujarat.
To ensure people of Gujarat get uninterrupted power, the state government had signed new supplementary agreements with Adani to pay as per the actual cost of fuel, said Desai. Again in 2021, when gas and imported coal prices saw significant rise, the state government, to ensure uninterrupted power supply, bought electricity from these firms under “special temporary arrangement” as approved by the Centre and state government, Desai said in the Assembly.