Audit of Delhi power companies from Thursday: Arvind Kejriwal

The audit of power companies in the national capital will begin Thursday after Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung Wednesday ordered the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to start the process, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

"Which the government could not achieve in the past four years ... we did it in four days," Kejriwal told reporters, referring to the previous Congress government.

Kejriwal said he had requested CAG Shashi Kant Sharma to do the audit in three months but Sharma said it depends on the cooperation of power distribution companies.

Asked what were the objections raised by the power distribution companies, Kejriwal said there was no reason for not getting their accounts audited.

Kejriwal fulfilled his second major election promise Tuesday, reducing power tariff through subsidy, a move expected to benefit an estimated 28 lakh households.

He had expressed hope that after the audit, there would be no need for subsidy.

On Wednesday, the chief minister agreed that slashing electricity rates through subsidy was not a sustainable solution.

"This is not a sustainable way. That is why an audit is needed. This is just to give some relief to the people till a long-term solution is found," he said.

Kejriwal had Tuesday met the CAG to seek an audit of three power distribution companies in the capital - Reliance companies BSES, BSES Rajdhani (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna (BYPL).

The Aam Aadmi Party earlier described their accounts as being "fudged and unreliable" and thus untrustworthy regarding their revenues situation.