Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab is all set to fulfill its pre-poll promise. From Friday, the people of Punjab will get 300 units of electricity free of cost every month. Effective from July 1, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in his tweet stated that the good news for the people of Punjab is that they will receive 300 units of electricity free of cost. Besides, he also attacked the opposition for failing to fulfill the poll promises.
"Our government has turned a new chapter in the history of Punjab. From today, every household across the state will get 300 units of electricity every month free of cost," Mann said. On the other hand, Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha also tweeted on Friday that it was a historic day for the people of Punjab that it has become the second state after Delhi to provide electricity up to 300 units free of cost. "For Punjabis, Kejriwal's first guarantee has become a reality," he added.
Read: Punjab FM presents AAP govt's 1st budget; free electricity from Jul 1
The announcement was made in the Budget session of the House to dole out freebies to the people of Punjab. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema had stated that from July 1, the AAP government would provide 300 units of free power supply on monthly basis to the people of Punjab. As per the data, Punjab has 10 million power consumers, including 73 lakh domestic, 14 lakh agricultural consumers (who receive free power supply), 11.50 lakh commercial users, and 1.50 lakh industrial consumers.
The state government's annual electricity subsidy bill amounts to Rs 10,000 crore, including Rs 7,180 crore as electricity subsidy to farmers alone. The cost of providing 300 units of free electricity to overall 73.39 lakh consumers will be Rs 1,300 crore in each billing cycle. Apart from giving away free power to the agriculture sector, minorities and EWS subsidized power to industries; the government is likely to spend about Rs 10,000 crore in 2022-23 as a subsidy.
As per the report of PSPCL, the Punjab government has been providing subsidized power supply thereby incurring an expenditure of Rs 3998 crore per annum on various categories of domestic consumers. Apart from this, at least 21.83 lakh consumers coming under SC, BC, and BPL categories are also given subsidized electricity for which the government bears the cost of Rs 1657 crore as a subsidy.
