No hike in power bills in Bihar as CM announces subsidy of ₹13,114 cr - Hindustan Times
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No hike in power bills in Bihar as CM announces subsidy of 13,114 cr

By, Patna
Mar 31, 2023 10:44 PM IST

An announcement to this effect in the state assembly in the pre-lunch session by chief minister Nitish Kumar, who said the decision was taken by the state cabinet today.

In a major relief to power consumers in Bihar, the state government Friday announced that there will be no hike in electricity rates effective from April 1 and that it would provide a subsidy amount totalling 13,114 crore to cover up the hike in power tariff recommended recently by the Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission( BERC).

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at the Assembly on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav at the Assembly on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

An announcement to this effect in the state assembly in the pre-lunch session by chief minister Nitish Kumar, who said the decision was taken by the state cabinet today.

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BERC had approved a hike of 24.10% across all categories of electricity consumers. The state government takes a final decision on the recommendations, officials said.

“Our cabinet has decided that we will not allow the electricity tariff to increase for the people of Bihar, which will remain the same as last year. For that, we have increased the subsidy from 8,895 crore in fiscal 2022-23 to 13,114 crore in 2023-24,” Kumar said.

However, the chief minister raised the issue of disparity in rates for power purchase among states from central power stations and highlighted how Bihar has to purchase power at 5.82 per unit whereas states like Gujarat were getting power at 3.74 per unit. “The cost of purchasing power from central sectors has increased from 5.12 per unit to 5.82 despite Bihar being a poor state,” he said.

“Even a rich state like Maharashtra gets power at the rate of 4.03 per unit while Rajasthan gets it is at 4.46 per unit and Madhya Pradesh at 3.49 per unit,” the CM said, while reiterating his demand for “one nation,one tariff”.

In his speech, Kumar also recalled how he had played a key role in setting up the NTPC thermal power plant at Barh during his stint as union minister in the BJP-led NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Earlier in the day, state energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said in the assembly that power tariff across all slabs in Bihar was much less than neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

However, leader of the opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha asked the government why it had handed over thermal power stations in the state to the centre. The energy minister said high tariff in railway freight and coal prices were reasons why the government had to give the two thermal power stations, at Barauni and Muzaffapur, to the centre to run them.

The last major hike in power tariff in Bihar was 50%, excluding the subsidy component, in 2017. There was no revision in tariff last year despite the discoms proposing a hike by 9.90% for financial year 2022-23.

Prior to that, the commission had approved an average cumulative hike in power tariff by 0.63%, which effectively translated into 5 paise to 35 paise per unit hike for domestic urban consumers for the financial year 2021-22.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    A journalist for 21 years, Anirban covers RJD, legislature and government beats. Has extensive experience in covering elections and writes regularly on finance, land reforms, registration, excise and socio-economic issues.

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