Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that this would benefit 41 lakh domestic electricity consumers in the capital. (File)
The Delhi cabinet has approved revised rates for electrical subsidies which, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, would effectively decrease rates of electricity even further for consumers in the capital.
In the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the new subsidy rates were approved after a budgetary allocation of Rs 1,830 crore was made for 2018-19. Sisodia added that this would benefit 41 lakh domestic electricity consumers in the capital.
“In the past, every year the burden for the consumer would increase with increasing tariffs. But we have decreased the prices even further. This is because the people of Delhi elected an honest government,” Sisodia said.
Officials said the cabinet approved the proposal for “revised extension of subsidy for those consuming up to 400 units per month at a flat rate of Rs 2 per unit”. In addition to this, Sisodia said that the cabinet has also approved a subsidy of Rs 100 per month per consumer for those consuming up to 100 units per month.
However, rates for consumers with a sanctioned load of 4 KW would see a hike in the net amount payable for them. Officials explained that while the earlier rate for the consumption of 400 units was Rs 1,495.40, it would now be Rs 1,586.90 — a difference of Rs 91.58.
Power minister Satyendar Jain added, “From 2013-15, we have worked tirelessly and taken different initiatives to ensure that the people of Delhi don’t suffer. Delhi now has the least number of power cuts in the country. Earlier, when you’d go to any shop, one could see red-coloured generators. They have completely disappeared.”
The cabinet approval comes close on the heels of the Delhi government’s decision to penalise discoms for unscheduled power cuts.
“Discoms continue to owe a cumulative amount of Rs 8,000 crore to Delhi government-owned DTL and IPGCL-PPCL, therefore the subsidy amount will be credited to these government-owned utilities,” the government, in a statement, said.
A special subsidy was approved for lawyers’ chambers in Delhi, who were previously being charged commercial rates.
Officials said that now, “lawyers’ subsidy will be the same as for domestic consumers and they will now be treated as domestic consumers”.
The cabinet asked the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to conduct a special audit of subsidy amount through an external auditor to ensure its actual passage to the consumers, said officials.
According to the government’s new power consumer policy, filing a complaint is not necessary for most cases of power cuts — as long as 50 or more connections are affected — for receiving compensation.
Earlier, power minister Satyender Jain had said that in cases where a group of consumers are affected by an “unscheduled power” cut, discoms will have to identify all those affected from its own records and credit compensation to them.