No word on ₹1,500 cr needed for cheaper power to industries
Though the Congress govt promised subsidised power in March, five months on, there is no clarity on how the cashstrapped govt will bear the cost
CHANDIGARH:Five months into the new financial year, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) is yet to declare the power tariff for 2017-18, even as it remains unclear how the state government will fulfil its promise of subsidised power to industrial consumers.
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had announced to give power at ₹5 a unit to the industrial sector consumers right after coming to power in March, a promise that will cost the state an estimated ₹1,500 crore.
The state government is already providing free power to 13.5 lakh tubewells, that cost ₹5,600 crore in the last financial year, and ₹1,100 crore worth of free power to the Scheduled Caste and below poverty line (BPL) consumers. The burden is likely to rise in the current year.
Over two weeks after Kusumjit Sidhu, a retired Punjab cadre IAS officer, took over as its chairperson, the PSERC is yet to announce the first power tariff order for the Congress government, even as the Electricity Act 2003, mandates declaration of the tariff by April 1.
Rejecting the public hearing conducted by the commission in May, under the then chairman, DS Bains, the commission will organise a hearing for various consumer sections on September 5 and 6. Sources in the commission said the tariff was not expected before October 1.
The PSERC tariff order for 2016-17 listed the estimated power consumption by the industrial consumers as 14,700 million units a year. The average landing cost of power to the consumer to different sections of industrial consumers (small, medium and large supply) comes to ₹6 per unit. As such, the state government under its promise will have to compensate Re 1 per unit, cumulating to an additional cost of a whopping ₹1,470 crore.
“The government will have to bear around ₹1,500 crore to fulfil its promise to the consumers in industrial sector. If it expresses inability in doing so, the burden will be shifted on other consumer sections, particularly domestic,” an expert in the sector said.
On the other hand, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has sought a power tariff hike of 20%, which if allowed, will be added to the power subsidy in the same proportion.
Notably, the state government has a bad track record of paying power agriculture subsidy. About ₹1,000 crore from 2015-16 remained pending, which was carried forward to 2016-17. Hence, it remains to be seen how the cash-strapped state government meets its populist promise, along with the uphill task of clearing past subsidies and adding new ones. LONDON: A 47-year-old Sikh man and his son were held at gunpoint and handcuffed by the UK police in southern England after someone complained about hearing a gunshot - which was actually his car’s tyre blowing.
Sukhi Rayat parked his car in his yard in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Shortly after a dozen armed policemen with dogs ran into his garden, then pushed him against a wall and put him in handcuffs.
“I’d been sitting in my car for a minute because I was calling the company I lease it from. As soon as I stepped out, police came out of nowhere with the dogs and rifles and everything,” Rayat was quoted as saying by the online