Haryana govt to bear power subsidy burden of over Rs 5,000 crore

The Haryana government will bear financial burden to the tune of Rs 5,284 crore on account of supply of power at subsidised rate to the farm sector during 2014-15, as per the new power tariff announced by the state power regulator.

The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission said, power subsidy amounting to Rs 5,284 crore will be borne by the state government.

The discoms will recover Rs 91.2 crore as revenue from agriculture pump set consumers, while energy being supplied to them stands at 8,907 million units.

The power regulator in its tariff order has asked the state-owned power discoms to recover power tariff from agriculture sector at a rate of Rs 6.64 per kwh, if the state government fails to release subsidy in the accordance with the Electricity Act, 2003.

HERC has also decided that the Haryana discoms – UHBVN and DHBVN – could even disconnect power connections of farm sector because of delay in payment of subsidy.

“The commission observes that due to delay in payment of subsidy committed by the state government as well as poor collection efficiency of revenue billed at the subsidised tariff, the burden in the form of additional working capital requirement is passed on to the other consumers. Hence the commission decides that the discoms shall enforce all the measures including disconnection of AP consumers on the same lines as is done in the case of other consumers,” it said in the order.

Boosting transmission

The power utilities in Haryana plan to strengthen their transmission and distribution system, so as to provide regular power supply to all categories of consumers.

Currently, the availability of power is more than the requirement and the consumers are getting supply for more period than the schedule.

Devender Singh, Principal Secretary (Power) and Chairman, Haryana Power Utilities said on Monday that to strengthen power transmission and distribution system all over the state, the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam have proposed a comprehensive plan of Rs 4,400 crore, to be completed by the end of fiscal 2016-17.