The Coalition is keeping its promises to cap dividend payments from the state's electricity network ... State Treasurer, Mike Baird.
THE O'Farrell government says it has reduced the dividend revenue it takes from the state's electricity network by almost $100 million compared with the amount Labor budgeted for when it was in office.
And the government was forecast to receive almost $150 million less this financial year than was forecast by the previous Labor government in budget papers, the Treasurer, Mike Baird, said.
Mr Baird said the Coalition was not only delivering on its promise to cap dividend payments from the state's electricity network but was well below the forecast levels set by the former Labor government.
The last Labor budget forecast a dividend take of $903 million in the 2011-12 financial year and $1.144 billion in 2012-13.
The actual dividend last year was $820 million, a decrease of 19 per cent, and it is forecast to be $999 million this year, a decrease of 13 per cent on previous estimates, Mr Baird said.
The opposition says the electricity dividends paid to the government have increased by 56 per cent, from $638 million to $999 million, since Labor was in office in 2010-11.
The opposition spokesman on energy, Luke Foley, said while dividends were forecast to increase by a similar, if not higher, amount under Labor's plans, ''they were forward estimates, which were three to four years hence, which were rubbery at best''.
Mr Foley said that when in opposition, the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, had promised to reduce the pressure on households by ''freezing'' the dividend payments.
''I reckon nine out of 10 people would understand freezing to mean they will be frozen at $638 million,'' Mr Foley said.
The Greens MP John Kaye said the increase in electricity prices was connected to the government's upgrade of the state's ''poles and wires''.
A report by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal found the main cause of soaring prices has been the huge investments in the electricity distribution network. ''The government continues to persist with the myth that the [price] rises are a result of the carbon price, when IPART has shown that is not true,'' Dr Kaye said.
