A week after the Jharkhand State Energy Regulatory Commission (JSERC) approved hiking power tariff, the State Government came up with subsidy to lessen the burden on the consumers. As per the proposal of the Energy Department, the Cabinet has decided to extend the coverage across all the sections.
Energy Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni informing about the decision taken by the Cabinet on Thursday withheld making public the actual subsidy amount and its category wise distribution due to model code of conduct in place but assured that sufficient cushion had been provided to the citizens.
“JSERC has revised the power tariff based on the actual cost of power. The Government has also closed down the resource gap earlier provided to the JBVNl. These factors have resulted into unexpected rise in the tariff.
That is why the Department has proposed subsidy for all the sections of the consumers which would allow only meager burden of the tariff to be passed onto them. Before disclosing the details we have to take permission from the Election Commission and we have approached them,” said the Power Secretary.
He also clarified that bringing the proposal before the Cabinet now was necessary since the revised power tariff was to be implemented from May 1 itself.
“At this moment, I can only say that cross sections of consumers would be benefited out of the decision, be it domestic, commercial or industrial,” said Kulkarni.
Following the decision of the regulatory commission, Chief Minister Raghubar Das had said that power consumers would be given subsidy in the lieu of the phenomenal rise so that the burden can be eased to some extent. The hike ranges somewhere between 70 to 80 per cent in comparison to the existing tariff.
This apart, the Cabinet in another important decision approved draft of the MoU to be signed between with the Centre’s Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India (BPPI).
“This is being done to open 250 new Jan Ausadhi Kendras covering different districts of the State for providing cheaper generic medicines.
The stores would be opened in the premises of medical colleges, Government hospitals, primary health centres and any other Government owned premises which would be made available free of cost,” said Cabinet Secretary SKG Rahate.