PATNA: The Bihar cabinet on Friday gave its nod to a proposal for sanctioning Rs 13,114 crore to provide subsidy to power consumers after the state electricity regulatory commission recommended a 24.10 per cent hike in tariff across all categories of users for 2023-24.
The decision to extend relief to consumers was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Making this announcement in the assembly, Kumar, said, "The 'Mahagathbandhan' government has decided not to put additional burden on power consumers in the state. The cabinet today sanctioned Rs 13,114 crore for giving subsidy to power consumers in the next financial year of 2023-24."
The sanctioned amount is Rs 4,219 crore more than the total subsidy of Rs 8,895 crore announced for the same purpose in the last financial year, he said.
Kumar also said, "I have said earlier that there should be 'one nation, one power tariff' in the country. Why are some states purchasing electricity at higher rates from the generation units of the central government?"
Claiming that Bihar gets electricity from the central PSUs' power generation plants at a "higher rate" as compared to other states, he said that uniform electricity rate across the country must be there.
"With the cabinet decision, power consumers will continue to pay the existing tariff in the next financial year, starting from tomorrow," said a senior official of the state energy department.
The Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission had announced a hike in power tariff by 24.10 per cent.
The commission had revised the rate to Rs 7.57 per unit as against an existing rate of Rs 6.10 for the first 100 units of energy consumption for urban domestic consumers.
The new rate is Rs 9.10 per unit as compared to the existing Rs 6.95 for consumption between 101 and 200 units, and Rs 8.05 for monthly consumption of more than 200 units.
Rural domestic consumers will continue to pay the existing tariff at Rs 6.10 per unit for the first 50 units and Rs 6.40 for consumption between 51 and 100 units, and Rs 6.70 for monthly consumption above 100 units.