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Soon after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of the Congress announced a top-up over his electricity subsidy for Rajasthan, the opposition BJP pounced on it, claiming it was a poll gimmick, and that the government was yet to pay discoms a large outstanding amount against the subsidy already given to consumers.
Across the country, domestic power subsidies are now offered by various state governments in terms of units (in kwh, ie kilo-watt-hour) consumed, following the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi.
AAP governments in both Delhi and Punjab offer the most comprehensive domestic power subsidy policies, which they have also tweaked. In Delhi, electricity is free for consumers up to 200 units a month. For the next slab — 201 to 400 units per month — there is a 50 per cent subsidy, capped at Rs 850. Consumers have to apply for the subsidy so as to get it, while the government keeps extending it in yearly cycles. Above 400 units, consumers have to pay in full, entirely at the applicable slab rate. So if someone gets a bill of 401 units, they pay for the entire consumption at the slab rate for 401-600.
After lowering tariffs across various categories of consumers based on their load as well as socio-economic category, the Punjab government has been giving domestic consumers free power up to 300 units a month, with the rider that if the bimonthly consumption exceeds 600 units, a full bill is charged.
The Congress was the first party to follow in the AAP’s footsteps in Delhi, in the four states under its control, of which two it has won recently.
In Rajasthan, the Gehlot government, which was already offering 50 units free to all consumers, has announced that from now on, it will offer the first 100 units per month free to all subscribers — domestic and commercial. It will also waive the permanent fee, fuel surcharge and other fees for all consumers consuming up to 200 units.
In Chhattisgarh, under its “Half Electricity Bill Scheme”, the Bhupesh Baghel government is waiving off half the bill of domestic consumers using less than 400 units per month.
In Karnataka, under the Gruha Jyothi Scheme, the newly elected Siddaramaiah government has said it will provide 200 units free electricity per month to domestic households, including tenants, based on the users’ consumption pattern in the last 12 months, starting July 1, and is offering a 10% leeway over it. For example, if a household has consumed 100 units of electricity (up to 200 units) on an average in the last 12 months, the user will be entitled to 110 units of free electricity every month this year. They will have to pay only for any consumption above their designated limit, based on last year’s average.
In another recently won state, Himachal Pradesh, the Congress government has decided not to raise power tariff, which they claim is an overall subsidy for all against a rise in water cess. They are continuing with full subsidy for consumers with a monthly bill less than 125 units, with full charges activated slab-wise thereafter.
Non-BJP, non-Congress Opposition-run states display broadly the same pattern. Few offer subsidies to domestic consumers, and those that do, offer lesser subsidies than the AAP or Congress governments. However, most of them tend to offer bulk subsidies to their respective discoms and to industries, besides having various incentive-based subsidies for the agriculture sector.
In Nitish Kumar’s Bihar, there is an overall subsidy that has gone up by nearly a half, but no per household subsidy. The West Bengal government announced a relatively meagre free electricity policy in its 2020-21 budget only for those with quarterly consumption of up to 75 units. The Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand offers up to 100 units per month free for financially weaker sections. There is an overall subsidy for discoms in Odisha, but none for individual domestic consumers, though some incentives for agriculture exist.
After much deliberation over withdrawing the subsidy, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu has recently renewed its policy of giving the first 100 units consumed per month free to households and weavers. Andhra Pradesh supplies nine hours of free power daily to industries, agriculture, aqua farmers, besides slab-wise subsidies for SC, ST, MBC and general category domestic consumers. In neighbouring Telangana, there is an overall subsidy to discoms and subsidies for agriculture, but no household subsidy.
Most BJP-run state governments do not offer such subsidies, at least in the domestic power sector. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh is an exception, offering domestic consumers an 84% subsidy up to the first 100 units per month, with a flat bill of only Rs 100 instead of Rs 643 for each.
Maharashtra offers 50% subsidy on less than 100 units of consumption, which is lower than most non-BJP run states.
In Assam, power tariff rates have been raised for all sections barring weaker section groups falling under the state’s Jeevan Dhara and Domestic A categories.
Across Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, there are various subsidies for farmers, as well as ‘green’ incentives, but no subsidies for domestic consumers.
