Retired PSPCL engineer Vinod Gupta said that the financial viability of PSPCL gets eroded, not because of its inefficiency but due to political expediency. (File)Retired Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) engineer Vinod Gupta, who is also the spokesperson of All Indian Power Engineers Federation on Sunday said that there is no such thing as a “free lunch” and the people will have to pay in the long run.
His reaction comes after the state government announced 300 units of free electricity for domestic consumers from July 1, but with a caveat that they will have to pay the full bill if their usage exceeds 600 units in two months. In the case of SC/ST/BPL consumers with connected load up to 1 KW, they will be charged for the usage of additional units only.
He added that the financial viability of PSPCL gets eroded, not because of its inefficiency but due to political expediency. PSPCL has been bearing the brunt of such largesse due to delayed and incomplete payment of subsidy against section 65 of the Electricity Act 2003.
There are 73.5 lakh domestic consumers in the state and PSPCL has worked out that the scheme will cover about 61 lakh households where bi-monthly usage is less than 600 units. There are reports that 45,000 consumers have already applied for the second connection in anticipation of the implementation of this scheme. Now the number of consumers will increase further.
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Gupta, in a press note to media, said, “The government has estimated that the power subsidy payable to PSPCL would be Rs 15,846 crore during the current financial year. This amount includes Rs 6,947 crore on free power for the agriculture sector, Rs 2,503 crore for the industrial sector, and Rs 6,396 crore for domestic consumers. The domestic subsidy amount includes Rs 1,800 crore, which is the cost of providing 300 units free to domestic consumers during the nine-month period. This implies that the estimated annual expenditure on this account will be Rs 2,400 crore. However, PSPCL may be losing revenue worth Rs 4,000 crore per annum.”
During the current financial year, the state government would have to pay Rs 24,866 crore toward power subsidy to different categories of consumers. The government has estimated Rs 15,846 crore for power subsidy and PSPCL has calculated Rs 9,020 crore, which is due from the previous financial year.
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