During the 2014 Elections, the ‘Gujarat development model’ was sold to the hilt by Narendra Modi and his cronies in the media industry. One of the aspects of this ‘Development Model’ was Gujarat being a surplus electricity state and Modi’s Propaganda machine kept harping on this fact. True, but is that the entire reality? Modi is really good at coining attractive names like Jyoti Gram Etc. He is probably one of the better marketing manager India has produced. But that is where his and Gujarat model’s qualifications end. Lets look at the real story of this ‘electricity surplus state’.

Gujarat’s current electricity needs are about 12,348 megavolts as reported by Times of India (Gujarati). However, the so-called electricity surplus Gujarat has in fact purchased 6812.46 crores worth of electricity from Modi’s pet private companies?

CompanyCompany
Year 2012 (Numbers in Crores)
2013 (Numbers in Crores)
Essar402.26156.38
Essar Vadinar12631001
Adani Power2430.313032.81
Gujarat Paguthan154.011115.59
A C B21.57227.75
Coastal Gujarat1278.61
Total4380.796812.46

Above data was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly by none other than Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam LTD (GUVNL). GUVNL, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gujarat State Electricity Board, has the unbroken record of generating profit for last eight years. GUVNL has generated profit of 624 crore in 2011-2012 and 539 crore in 2012-2013 alone. In spite of generating profit for straight eight years, the Company still carries forward a loss of 44256 lakhs and the reason is that GUVNL has to purchase 6812.46 crores worth electricity from private companies. Essentially, the State of Gujarat is making a huge loss to the exchequer by purchasing electricity from all these private companies instead of producing electricity under state owned electricity companies. To cover up this loss, Gujarat charges the highest tax on electricity bills in the country which amounts to approximately 20% of the billed amount resulting in sky high electricity bills.

So while people of Gujarat, through their hard earned money, cover up the loss that State Government incurs by buying electricity from private companies, Narendra Modi used the same model to drum-beat his claims for the topmost post of the country.