The ‘nil electricity bill’ may be a poll clincher for the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in the Delhi elections with most consumers happy with zero payout for water and electricity, but some have been crying foul because of higher fixed charges, penalties and commercial usage charges.
Power distribution companies (Discoms) are neutral about the muted power bills because they are getting subsidies from the State government, relieving them of the burden of recovering bills from most low-income individual consumers. According to Discom officials, there is no delay in the subsidy disbursal from the State government either. However, they are concerned about power tariffs not being hiked by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).
