Chandigarh, January 31: The Punjab Government has decided to remove the upper annual limit of 3000 units for electricity consumption by SC, BC and BPL families, enabling all domestic users in these categories to avail 200 units per month free of cost.
The decision would bring back into the scheme’s cover the over 1.17 lakh domestic consumers who had been taken out of its ambit with the introduction of the upper limit. The move will put an additional burden of Rs. 163 Crores on the state exchequer.
With this decision, all consumers in these categories will be required to pay only for units consumed over and above 200 units a month, with billing to be done on a bi-monthly basis, according to an official spokesperson.
The move will benefit a total of over 17.76 Lakh families comprising SC Domestic, Non-SC BPL Domestic and Backward (BC) Domestic consumers with sanctioned load upto 1 KW. The subsidy would cost the state exchequer a total of Rs. 1253 Crores per annum.
The Cabinet has, however, decided to bar all income tax payees, from availing 200 units per month of free electricity facility under the scheme.
