Electricity consumers are paying higher power prices because the NSW government has failed to freeze electricity dividend payments made to it, the state opposition says.
Opposition Leader John Robertson said on Sunday that the O'Farrell government would receive $1 billion this year through higher power prices due to a lift in dividend payments.
The government had broken a pre-election promise to keep a lid on electricity prices by freezing the payments, Mr Robertson said.
Dividends flowing from state-owned electricity companies to the NSW government had increased by $361 million in its first two years in office, he said in a statement.
'That's the equivalent of $120 extra from each household in the state.'
Mr Robertson said the O'Farrell government was 'sending electricity bills soaring for families and businesses in NSW'.
The claims come after federal opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull backed the commonwealth government's view that the 'gold-plating' of state government energy infrastructure was a large contributor to rises in the price of electricity.
That's contrary to the view of federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who says price rises are wholly due to the carbon tax.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has demanded that states find solutions to take pressure off household power prices by the end of the year or face market watchdogs with greater authority to enforce changes.
But Mr O'Farrell has said that the way to avoid electricity increases this financial year is to scrap the carbon tax.
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