Angul, March 29: The BJP will support the shutdown call given by the Odisha Bidyut Upabhokta Mahasangh on Tuesday against the power tariff hike.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said the state government had waived electricity duty worth Rs 128 crore to the Vedanta Group in 2012. "But, it imposed tariff hike on the poor BPL families and farmers," he said.

Countering the BJP allegation, BJD spokesman Pratap Keshari Deb said: "The government had written to the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission not to hike the power tariff. However, the commission did not agree and referred to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, which asked to recover Rs 740 crore to the National Thermal Power Corporation for which the power tariff was to be hiked."

The matter related to waiver of electricity duty to Vedanta is pending in the court, he said.