Delhi Cabinet approves revised extension of power subsidy

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Power Department's proposal for revised extension of subsidy for electricity consumers consuming upto 400 units per month at a flat rate of Rs two per unit.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, also accorded approval to a subsidy of Rs 100 per month per consumer on fixed electricity charges for domestic consumers consuming upto 100 units per month.

"There is a major relief to lower middle-income as well as resettlement residents, who are consuming power below 400 unit and 100 unit per month. the In last two years, there has been no increase in power tariff," Delhi said Power Minister Satyendar Jain.

He added that the Cabinet also approved the special subsidy for lawyers using chambers within the premises of premises of court complexes.

The lawyers' subsidy will be the same as for domestic consumers and they will now be treated as domestic consumers. Earlier, lawyers were charged at commercial rates for electricity bills of their chambers.

"Delhi is only metropolitan city, where power is supplied at the cheapest rate and without load shedding.

"In addition to the DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission) reducing electricity charges for domestic users for the current financial year, the Power Department's also introduced a policy for compensating consumers for unscheduled power cuts by the private power distribution companies," Jain added.

As per the policy, in case of an unscheduled power cut, discoms will have to restore electricity within one hour, and failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours, followed by Rs 100 per hour per consumer after two hours.

The policy is set to benefit around 41 lakh domestic electricity consumers in Delhi and raise their monthly savings.

During Wednesday's meeting, it was noted that as discoms continue to owe a cumulative amount of Rs 8,000 crore to the Delhi government owned DTL and IPGCL-PPCL, the subsidy amount will be credited to these government-owned utilities.