Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister AK Sharma said the state government had provided subsidies worth Rs 23,000 crore during the current fiscal 2022-23 to different categories of power consumers.
He said an additional subsidy of Rs 1,000 crore was made available to the consumers through the supplementary budget of 2022-23.
“UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is working on war footing for installing 40 lakh smart meters across the state. So far 11.78 lakh smart meters have been installed in 12 cities. With the completion of this project, there will be no need for taking manual meter readings from the premises of the power consumers,” the minister said here on Monday.
He said the results of effective measures taken by the power corporation to bring down the line losses were now visible. He said in 2016-17, line losses were 21.47 per cent which had come down to 17.62 per cent in January 2023. He said the aggregate transmission and distribution losses had reduced to 26.83 per cent from 28.81 per cent.
The energy minister said the power corporation had taken a series of measures for the convenience of the power consumers like 24-hour power supply, online facility for the payment of the bills and toll-free number for the redressal of the grievances of the consumers.
The minister said in special camps for resolving the problems faced by the power consumers, a total of 1.73 lakh complaints were received of which 1.46 lakh had been resolved. Moreover, the minister said, 71,000 complaints were resolved through the online SAMBHAV portal set up by the UPPCL.
The minister said during the current fiscal, along with 24-hour power supply to domestic category of power consumers, a subsidy of Rs 6,503 crore was provided to the consumers. He said a subsidy of Rs 7,097 crore was given to farmers who owned private tube wells while a subsidy of Rs 1,250 crore was given by the Agriculture department. He said besides the farmers, Rs 250-crore subsidy was given to handloom weavers and Rs 8,007 crore for loss funding. He said the total subsidy bill in 2022-23 added up to Rs 23,107 crore.
The minister said for promoting rapid industrialisation of the state, the government had given the facility of open access regime to the industrial consumers.
Under the open access regime, big consumers can directly take power from power generators and they have to pay only the wheeling charges for using the transmission network of the UP Power Transmission Corporation.
The minister said so far 245 big consumers had availed the benefit of the open access regime.