The domestic power subsidy bill of the government is likely to exceed or stay on a par with the agriculture subsidy bill by the end of this financial year as per the domestic power consumption pattern. With more consumers applying for new power connections to keep bills under 300 units a month, the subsidy bill is increasing.
Last year, the government announced and executed free 300 units per month scheme for all domestic consumers and since then the domestic power consumption has shown an upward trend.
“Consumers are applying for new connections and in some houses, we have over three meters and none gets a bill as their consumption is under 300 units. On a conservative average, it is adding over Rs 125 crore per month in the subsidy amount,” a top Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) functionary told The Tribune.
Documents in possession of The Tribune suggest that in August 2023, the subsidy amount payable by the Punjab Government was Rs 823 crore, whereas it was Rs 638 crore in last August, an increase of Rs 185 crore, including revision in the tariff amount.
“The increase shows that consumers are fully utilising the bi-monthly free power of 600 units. More than 1 lakh meters have been bifurcated to make use of government bonanza,” a top PSPCL official said.
The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) in its tariff order for 2023-24 estimated a total subsidy of Rs 18,714.51 crore. This included Rs 8,809 crore for agriculture power, Rs 5,886 crore for free 300 units of power to domestic consumers and Rs 1,427 crore for those consumers with load up to 7 KW at Rs 2.50 per unit.
“The total domestic power subsidy for this fiscal was Rs 7,313 crore, but with an average increase of Rs 125 crore per month, it will now be Rs 8,813 crore. In comparison, the agriculture sector subsidy is Rs 8,809 crore,” said All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) spokesperson VK Gupta. “For a small state like Punjab, such huge domestic power subsidy bill does not augur for better future economically,” Gupta added.
A senior PSPCL officer confirmed that the subsidy bill for domestic consumers is swelling. “We already have executed 27,000 new connections in Amritsar circle, 23,000 in Bathinda and 21,000 in Patiala circle,” he said.
In addition, various government departments owe over Rs 3,000 crore to PSPCL. Despite introduction of one-time settlement scheme for power bill defaulters, these departments are yet to clear the dues.
The Punjab Government in December last year claimed that the number of ‘zero bill’ domestic consumers was swelling with each passing day. Now, the total subsidised domestic consumers under various categories was almost over 95 per cent.
