Lucknow:Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma on Friday announced that the state government was halving the existing electricity rates for urban metered tube well connections from Rs 6/unit to Rs 3/unit.
The fixed charge for the same was reduced from Rs 130/horsepower to Rs 65/horsepower. Electricity rates for rural metered pump connections, on the other hand, were reduced from Rs 2/unit to Rs 1/unit.
Fixed charge rates, meanwhile, were changed from Rs 70/horsepower to Rs 35/horsepower. For unmetered connections, the rates came down to Rs 85/horsepower from Rs 170/horsepower.
The aforementioned rates announced by the energy minister will be applying to unmetered and metered pumps in rural areas and metered tube wells in urban areas.
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This followed UP CM Yogi Adityanath's tweet on Thursday, wherein the latter said the halving of the charge were aimed at 'giving relief to farmers'.
"'Happy farmers' are the basis of self-reliant Uttar Pradesh. In the line of giving relief to the farmer brothers, our government has decided that in the electricity bill of private tube wells in UP, 50% rebate will be provided based on the rate fixed by the Electricity Regulatory Commission," Adityanath has tweeted.
As per estimates, the new rates will be putting an extra Rs 1000 crore burden on the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited every year, due to which the administration has already provided grant to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).