With an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections, the city government is planning to enhance the subsidy on power tariff. In the wake of Centre’s decision to allow power companies a hike in power prices, the Delhi government is considering to enhance the subsidy on power tariff till 400 units.
Maximum households in the city consume around 400 units of electricity per month while a subsidy of `1 per unit has been granted on usage of 200 units. The opposition BJP and Aam Aadmi Party have been continuously raising the high power tariff issue to garner votes from the middle and working class ahead of the Assembly elections slated in November this year.
Sources in the power department said that the government will wait till the power tariff review by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and will then decide the hike in subsidy.
“The decision is likely to be taken after the revision of power tariff. The subsidy can be enhanced to 300-400 units. The amount of subsidy will be decided subsequently,” said a source.
A hike in subsidy can dampen the campaign of BJP and AAP against the city government on high power tariff. Both parties have announced that they will slash power tariff on coming to power.
Chief minister Sheila Dikshit has many a times defended hike in power tariff citing 24-hour power supply. However, the government claims that decision on power tariff is taken by DERC which is an independent authority. All three discoms — BYPL BRPL and TPDDL — have sought a substantial hike in power tariff citing the high coal price.
On Friday, the Centre gave its nod for import of coal to the power companies which will lead to higher power prices.
However, the sources said that the city government was planning to increase the subsidy much before the Centre’s decision of allowing coal import.