The Delhi Government is mulling to reintroduce subsidy on power in the national Capital. lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung has asked the Power Department officials to move a proposal for Rs 600 crore in the budget towards subsidy.
The proposal will soon be sent to the Centre for approval. Sources claimed the proposal is based on the pattern of subsidy provided earlier by the Congress regime for people consuming power up to 200 units and 400 units. The Finance Department has recently received a proposal to this effect. The subsidy on power was available till March 31 but was discontinued after the Centre disallowed the same.
Top sources told The Pioneer that Jung is reported to have directed the Power Department to bring a provision of power subsidy to the people of Delhi as a relief from hefty power bills. “It is up to the Union Government to decide whether the power subsidy will be given or not,” sources said. The Delhi Government had till recently been providing subsidy of Rs 550 crore to power consumers in the national Capital.
The Delhi Government had also prepared an estimate of Rs 669 crore for power subsidy in the April-September period but, sources said, this did not figure in the ‘vote on account’ approved by the Parliament. The same proposal was withdrawn by the Government after objections by the then UPA Government. However, after withdrawal of subsidy, the power tariff has increased up to 100 per cent to consumers availing the benefit of subsidy.
The Sheila Dikshit Government provided subsidy in two slabs for people whose electricity usage was limited to 400 units. When Arvind Kejriwal Government came in power, he had announced 50 per cent slash in electricity tariffs for consumers whose usage was capped below 400 units.
Delhi was allocated Rs 18,033 crore. Budget estimates of Rs 36,066 crore were approved in the Interim Budget for 2014-15. Both the Houses passed Delhi Appropriation and Vote on Account Bills as the Delhi Assembly could not pass the budget for financial year 2014-15 before President’s Rule was imposed. After the elections, the Delhi Government has started budget preparations for the next six months and it has asked all the departments to send budget proposal to the finance department.
Meanwhile, political parties have started accusing each other for increasing power tariff in the national Capital. Both the Congress and the BJP accused the AAP Government while Kejriwal blamed both the parties for this mess.