Chhattisgarh’s Half Electricity Bill scheme brings joy to millions of consumers

It’s hard to imagine our lives without electricity since it is the fuel which runs the activities of the entire nation, whichever sector it may be. It is a life-changing innovation, discovered by humans. Development and generation of electricity have drastically changed the lives, starting from domestic use to industrial activities, and the constantly emerging options of new sources of energy.

The Chhattisgarh government understood the real power and value behind electricity and decided to launch the Half Electricity Bill Scheme, which has brought happiness and joy in the face of millions of domestic electricity consumers of the state. The scheme provides for half electricity bills for domestic electricity consumption up to 400 units.

SCHEME WITH A LESSON & MOTIVATION: SAVING RESOURCES, SAVING ELECTRICITY

Chhattisgarh being the nation’s power hub has launched various schemes from time to time, to provide electricity to farmers and poor families at subsidized rates. But it was for the first time, that domestic electricity consumers who consumed around 400 units of electricity, were granted with waiving of half of their electricity bills. The scheme didn’t just come up as a surprise for the general middle-class domestic users of the state, but it also encouraged them to save electricity and make wiser decisions towards making the best use of it.

A SIGH OF RELIEF FOR THE MIDDLE-CLASS

Various families of low and middle-class income groups have heaved a sigh of relief with this decision, as it became quite tough for them to pay their electricity bills in an era of rising inflation. The accessibility of power supply at concessional rates was like a far-fetched dream for this class, and on the contrary, with the increase in power tariff in few years, people were forced to pay inflated electricity bills for their homes.

To make peace with this rising economic burden, they were forced to cut down on some of their essential expenses.

The formation of the new government in December 2018 under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, closely evaluated the problems of the category of domestic consumers with complete empathy. Under the banner of “Gadhbo Nava Chhattisgarh”, the state government implemented the “Half Electricity Bill Scheme” from 1 March 2019 for all domestic electricity consumers in the state. The entire state was filled with joy and enthusiasm over this unexpected yet promising decision, to lessen the burden of the lower middle class and middle-class section of the society.

The scheme has provided great relief to the people of the state. Electricity bills worth thousands of rupees were now reduced to a few hundreds. With the expenditure incurred on paying the electricity bill of their household being halved for these consumers, they will now use their precious savings for other investments and works. Under the Half Electricity Bill Scheme, all domestic consumers of the state are being given a rebate of half the bill based on effective electricity rates on electricity consumed up to 400 units per month. Earlier, consumers had to pay Rs 4.50 per unit, whereas currently, they would pay Rs 2.30 per unit on 400 units of electricity consumption. The benefit of this scheme is for all BPLS in the state and other domestic category consumers.

Subsidy of Rs 1,336 crore has been given to about 38,42,000 consumers of the state till September 2020.

With the successful implementation of the Half Electricity Bill Scheme, a subsidy of Rs 1,336 crore has been given to about 38,42,050 consumers of the state till

September 2020. Domestic consumers of electricity and the young generation among the middle-class section of the society have taken up this scheme as a motivation to save electricity for their future generation and greater good ahead.