Power freebie comes into force even as PSPCL awaits guidelines

PATIALA: Amid self-congratulatory messages posted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, confusion prevailed over the implementation of free electricity scheme that came into force in the border state on Friday.

Free 300 units of electricity to each household was the first “guarantee” announced by Kejriwal last year ahead of the Punjab assembly elections in February. After taking over as the chief minister (CM), Mann made the announcement to fulfil the promise from July 1.

However, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has not received any official notification or guidelines regarding the scheme, claim top officials.

“At present there is neither any notification nor any written guidelines from the government to implement the scheme. As of now, all 73.5 lakh consumers are eligible,” said a PSPCL official. He, however, said that if there is no rider, then the subsidy amount will be around ₹8,000-₹9,000 crore, whereas the government has made budgetary provisions for only ₹6,800 crore.

According to sources even though the government has made the announcement to implement the scheme, all formalities have not been completed yet. “The file is still to get the nod from the finance department, and after that the cabinet will take the formal decision on various modalities under this scheme,” said the official cited above.

There is also confusion over whether the previous subsidy of ₹3 per unit announced by former CM Charanjit Singh Channi will continue or not. Besides there is no clarity on whether all beneficiaries who consume more than 300 units per month will pay the entire bill amount or there will be exemption for some categories.

The draft has been prepared and it will be finalised in next cabinet meet, confirmed another senior official in the government, while adding that the CM has already clarified that all previous subsidies will continue.

All guarantees will be fulfilled soon: CM

Earlier, Mann targeted the previous regimes for “looting the people of Punjab for decades”, and said that while all other governments took five full years to keep their poll promises, the AAP government had set a benchmark by fulfilling its major guarantee of free power within three months of coming to power. “All the remaining guarantees will be fulfilled soon,” he said.

The CM also said that his government has waived arrears of electricity bills pending till December 31, 2021, for all households. “There was some confusion among people that arrears of up to 2 KW were waived, but the fact is that pending electricity bills of all connections till December 31, 2021, have been waived by the state government,” he said in a statement released by the party.

Even Kejriwal praised the functioning of the Mann government while congratulating the people of Punjab on the rollout of the scheme. “We have fulfilled our promise. The AAP does what it says. People of Punjab will get rid of expensive electricity,” the party chief tweeted.

THE GOVT HAS PROMISED 300 UNITS OF FREE ELECTRICITY TO EACH HOUSEHOLD EVERY MONTH