Shimla: Even as the Congress party had promised to hike the number of free units of electricity to consumers to 300 before coming to power in Himachal pradesh in 2022, a severe financial crunch has forced the Congress-led government to rationalise the existing subsidy scheme — offering 125 units of free electricity — by excluding tax-paying consumers.
The subsidy will now be restricted to ‘one family one meter’ and electricity connections will be linked to ration cards or aadhaar cards.
The Himachal government has decided to withdraw the subsidy for chief minister/ex-chief ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, ministers/ex-ministers, MPs/ex-MPs, MLAs/ex-MLAs, chairmen of boards/ advisors, officers on special duty, all Class-1 and Class-2 employees of the government/corporations/boards — including officers in Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Himachal Pradesh Police Service and Himachal Pradesh Administrative Service, and forest officers, judicial officers, etc. — all government Class A and Class B contractors and all income tax payers.
The decision was taken Friday at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu amid allegations by the Bharatiya Janata Party that the state government was planning to withdraw the current subsidy of 125 free units.
The previous BJP government, led by former chief minister Jairam Thakur, had launched the power subsidy scheme in the state in 2022, the last year of its term. In January 2022, the government had decided to give 60 units of free power. The number was later enhanced to 125 units in August 2022 for all the 14 lakh domestic consumers.
The Congress government, led by Sukhu, had decided to continue the scheme after coming to power. However, on the 300-unit promise, he had said that the state would have to become self-reliant first.
Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan told the media that the government took this call to ensure that the people in need continue to receive the benefit of the free power scheme. “BJP government just launched the scheme, while the burden was borne by the Congress government. Rs 900 cr were spent on this scheme in 2022-23. This escalated to Rs 1,000 cr in 2023-24,” he said.
“Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board is in a poor state due to this scheme. So, we decided to pull out consumers with high income. Why do they need subsidies on power bills?” he added.
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‘What happened to 300-unit guarantee’
Meanwhile, former chief minister Jairam Thakur accused the Congress of cheating the people of the state. “Congress promised 300 units of free power during the last assembly elections, and is now finding ways to scrap the scheme launched by the BJP government. This is unacceptable,” Thakur told ThePrint. He said that the Congress had given false guarantees.
A senior HPSEB official told ThePrint that this decision would likely impact around 15 percent to 20 percent of consumers.
Speaking to ThePrint, another state government official said that the ‘one family, one meter’ concept might exclude many beneficiaries. “There are many consumers with more than one meter in their name. ‘One family, one meter’ will restrict subsidies to one meter only,” he added.
Earlier in March, Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC) had disallowed the free power subsidy to consumers with electricity meters installed without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from civic bodies. According to the HPERC order, such consumers are now being charged Rs 6.79 per unit of electricity.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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