The Delhi Cabinet on Thursday decided to extend the power subsidy scheme to domestic consumers using up to 400 units per month to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area. In a meeting chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Cabinet approved the power department’s proposal to extend the electricity subsidy scheme to the domestic consumers residing in the NDMC area.
It has been decided that the existing scheme of providing 50 per cent reduction in the electricity bills of domestic consumers using up to 400 units per month will also be applicable to the consumers residing in the NDMC areas. An additional fund of Rs 15 crore will be provided by the government to the power department for this purpose.
The government said that this is for the first time that electricity subsidy scheme has been extended to the NDMC area. However, the scheme will not be applicable to consumers using more than 400 units of electricity per month.
The Delhi government had on February 25, 2015 decided to provide a 50 per cent subsidy to the domestic electricity consumers of Delhi, who consume up to 400 units per month. This decision was made applicable to domestic consumers residing in NDMC areas also.
However, the power department was informed by the Delhi Vidyut Board Employees Terminal Benefit Fund Pension Trust that a sum of Rs 27 crore was recoverable from the NDMC in the form of pro rata contribution to the DVB Pension Trust against the provision made in the tariff order passed by the DERC for financial years 2012-13 and 2014-15.
It is therefore imperative that the entire amount of subsidy to be released to the NDMC should be credited to the account of Pension Trust against the overdue amount of Rs 27 crore. Secretary of the NDMC stated that an amount of over Rs 15 crore will be required to implement the electricity subsidy scheme.
