No plan to supply free power to agriculture sector: Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb

BHUBANESWAR: Even though the electricity consumption in the agriculture sector of Odisha is only 2.72 per cent of the total energy requirement, the State government said that there is no proposal for providing free electricity to the farm sector.

Replying to a question of BJP MLA Mohan Majhi, Energy Minister Pratap Keshari Deb informed the Assembly that electricity consumption in the agriculture sector has marginally increased from 158 million units (MU) to 806 MU during the last 10 years.

The Minister said that power consumption in the TPCODL area of operation was 27.2 MU in 2012-13 and it increased to 53 MU in 2021-22. In TPNODL and TPSODL areas, the energy consumption in the farm sector has increased from 46 MU to 120.67 MU and from 23 MU to 148.44 MU respectively. The growth in consumption in TPWODL is from 61.85 MU to 484.33 MU.

In its key regulatory parameters of power utility report, the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) said a few states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have supplied power to the farm sector free of cost. States like Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh are giving subsidies to the use of energy in the lower transmission consumers.

While Odisha is not giving direct subsidies to consumers in the agricultural sector, the State has cross-subsidised the unit rate by Rs 1.5 for LT consumers and Rs 1.4 for HT consumers.

Electricity consumption in the agriculture sector of Odisha is one of the lowest in the country. Against the total power consumption of 27,000 MU in 2021-22, the actual consumption in the agriculture sector was 806 MU.