Delhiites will have to pay more money for power and water bills from Tuesday as the subsidy for consumption up to 400 units of electricity and 20,000 litres of free water per month announced by erstwhile AAP Government ends in the new financial year. No provision has been made for subsidy for water and power consumers in the ‘vote on account’ passed by the Parliament for the current financial year of Delhi. Besides, Delhiites will have to pay 15 per cent more for water as the Delhi Jal Board’s annual price hike will finally come into effect from April 1. In other words, there will be no 50 per cent subsidy on power and free water up to 667 litres to consumers.
As per the power tariff order announced by DERC in 2013-14, the consumers in the domestic category using between 0 to 200 units will pay Rs 3.90 per unit; and for those consuming between 201 to 400 units will have to pay Rs 5.80 per unit. Those using between 401-800 units will have to pay Rs 6.80 per unit and above 800, the power tariff was fixed Rs 7 per unit for domestic consumers’ category. The Arvind Kejriwal Government had announced a 50 per cent subsidy on power consumption up to 400 units on the existing Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) rates in Delhi. The subsidy announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also includes that announced by the previous Government in August for consumers using power in the slab of 0-200 and 201-400 units per month. After the subsidy announced by the Sheila Dikshit Government, consumers were paying Rs 2.70 per unit for the first 200 units.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP’s Campaign Committee Chief for the lok Sabha elections Vijay Kumar Malhotra on Tuesday sought to put the entire blame of steep hike in the power and water tariff in the national Capital on AAP leader and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and termed it a great betrayal with the people of Delhi.