Bringing 1.17 lakh families back into ambit of subsidy and benefiting a total of 17.76 lakh domestic consumers, the Punjab Government on Thursday decided to remove upper annual limit of electricity of 3000 units for SC, BC and BPL families.
With this, all domestic users under SC, BC and BPL categories can avail 200 units per month ‘free of cost’.
The move will put an additional burden of Rs 163 crores on the already-burdened state exchequer, taking the total subsidy amount to Rs 1253 crores per annum.
The decision would bring back under the State Government’s subsidy scheme cover over 1.17 lakh domestic consumers who had been taken out of its ambit with the introduction of the upper limit.
With this decision, all consumers in these categories will be required to pay only for units consumed over and above 200 units a month, with billing to be done on a bi-monthly basis.
The official spokesperson said that the move will benefit a total of over 17.76 lakh families comprising SC domestic, non-SC BPL domestic and Backward (BC) domestic consumers with sanctioned load up to one kilowatt (KW).
The Cabinet has, however, decided to bar all income tax payees, from availing 200 units per month of free electricity facility under the scheme.