Consumers having domestic electricity connections of more than three kilowatt (kW) sanctioned load may stop getting power subsidy even if their monthly consumption is up to 400 units.
The recommendation, said sources, has come from power regulator DERC. Delhi power department may soon forward the proposal to the cabinet. If approved, the move will save the government about Rs 300 crore annually.
At present, domestic consumers who have opted for the subsidy get “zero bills” if their monthly electricity consumption is up to 200 units and get a 50% discount if they use 201 to 400 units. A senior official said almost 91% of domestic consumers have sanctioned load up to 3kW and will continue to get the benefit if they’ve opted for the scheme.
Most with 4kW have already opted out
Expecting that their move to exclude domestic consumers with sanctioned load above 3kW from the discounted power scheme will be implemented, the Delhi power department has asked for a lower allocation for electricity subsidy for the next fiscal.
“We hope our expenditure on power subsidy will go down further in 2023-24. We have taken into account these factors while requesting for lesser allocation towards the subsidy component for the next fiscal,” a senior power department official said.
While, earlier, all domestic consumers using up to 400 units got the subsidy, the government in September last year made it mandatory for them to give a consent – online or offline – on whether they wished to continue getting the benefit by “opting in” for the “voluntary subsidy scheme”.
Of over 58 lakh eligible domestic consumers, 48 lakh had opted for the voluntary subsidy scheme till February 15. Sources in the power department said up to 55 lakh consumers got the benefit of the subsidy during non-peak months in 2021-22 when power consumption was low.
“Many people had approached the government last year that they were capable of paying their electricity bills and did not wish to get the subsidy. That is why we came out with the voluntary subsidy scheme,” a senior Delhi government official said.
“Less than 10% of the total households in Delhi have electricity meters with the sanctioned load of four kilowatt or more. Most of them may have already opted out of the scheme,” the official added.
While the Delhi government had allocated a budget of Rs 3,250 crore to pay for the subsidy in the financial year of 2022-23, with almost seven lakh consumers opting out of the scheme, the government managed to save almost Rs 200 crore in the current fiscal.
However, officials said that as per the scheme the consumers will have to register their consent every year to be eligible for subsidy in months when their consumption remains below 400 units. “The number of consumers availing the subsidy may even go up if more people register under the voluntary subsidy scheme,” said an official.
