With the Punjab Cabinet finally giving its nod to the policy to implement its first pre-poll “guarantee” of free power, state’s each household would get 600 units of power free per billing cycle with effect from July 1, 2022.
Notably, the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced that all the domestic power consumers in Punjab would get 300 units of power free from July 1 onwards. Even though the decision had come into effect this month, the government was yet to come up with detailed guidelines or issue a notification to this effect for the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to implement the decision.
Sharing the details regarding the decision, the spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that all the domestic consumers in the state will be eligible to get zero bills if their consumption is up to 600 units in every billing cycle — that is two months in Punjab for domestic power consumers.
This will give a big reprieve to the domestic consumers who have to hitherto shell out huge money every month in the form of power tariff, said the spokesperson.
As per the decision, the Scheduled Caste (SC), non-SC BPL and Backward Class (BC) domestic consumers, who are currently eligible for free 400 units (per billing cycle) of power, will also get subsidy of 600 units now.
Likewise, freedom fighters of Punjab and their successors (up to grandchildren) domestic consumers, who are currently eligible for free 400 units of power, will also get subsidy of 600 units per billing cycle.
In case, consumption of SC, non-SC BPL, BC and freedom fighter categories exceeds units per billing cycle, they will pay only for units consumed in addition to 600 units along with full fixed charges, meter rentals, and government levies as applicable.
Similarly, the Cabinet also gave green signal for waiving off pending arrears of all the domestic consumers as on December 31, 2021 and unpaid up to June 30, 2022. This move will give relief to around 28.10 lakh domestic consumers with a total benefit of Rs 1298 crore.