Punjab govt paid its own power subsidy bill for 2023-24 to PSPCL; powercom awaiting promised pending amount
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 15,2024
Punjab govt has paid Rs 18,276.74 crores as power subsidy to the Punjab state power corporation limited (PSPCL) from April 1,2023 to March 31,2024
Out of these Rs 18,276.74 crores, Rs 8881.83 crores are for AP (agriculture) subsidy, Rs 6818.28 for domestic consumer (DS) subsidy and Rs 2576.63 crores for industry subsidy.
As per available information, in 2023-24 financial year, the state govt has paid Rs 1500 crores in April, Rs 2002 crores in May, Rs 1549 crores in June, Rs 1710.80 crores in July, Rs 1960.53 crores in August, Rs 1811.04 crores in September, Rs. 1808.95 crores in October, Rs 1727.05 crores in November, Rs 1752 crores in December, Rs 1300.41 crores in January, Rs 496.72 crores in February and Rs 658.24 crores in March 2024.”
“In 2022-23, and 2023-24 which was the first two years when the Punjab government had paid the entire subsidy bill of Rs 20,200 crore to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited including the previous pending subsidy amount. The state govt had made five installments of Rs 9020 crore pending subsidy and had paid the first two installments of Rs 1,804 crore each to the powercom. But this year around 1900 crores are kept pending by the state government “said an officer of the power corporation on the condition of anonymity.
He added that “ as promised by the government, it has almost paid the entire power subsidy of 2023-24 which comes to Rs 18,276.74 crores but might have kept the third installment of Rs 1804 crores of previous government power subsidy bill as pending.”
The officer further added that the “state government has already released the power subsidy of Rs 1820 crores for the month of April 2024. Out of this Rs 1820 crores, Rs 1013 crores are for AP (agriculture) subsidy, Rs 624.33 crores for domestic consumer (DS) subsidy and Rs 182.67 crores for industry subsidy.”
Another officer added that “it’s the AAP government which has kept its promise alive and are clearing the power subsidy bill on monthly basis. Earlier the power subsidy was given to the agriculture sector only. After the Bhagwant Mann led AAP government gave 300 unit per month free power to state residents, irrespective of any caste, creed, religion, category the government has paid the increased amount of subsidy to the powercom. In 2021-22, the subsidy was Rs 10,679 crore, which rose to Rs 15,845 crore in 2022-23 and then Rs 18,714 crore in the next financial year.
As per Punjab government, at present 90 percent of residents registered as domestic consumers are getting zero bill. There are approximately 14.23 lakh tubewells in the state and the total subsidy borne by the state .
As per available information, the annual revenue requirement for 2024-25 has been assessed at Rs.46383 crores and its annual income at the current rates will be Rs.47940 crores. The main component of ARR is power purchase cost which has been assessed at Rs.30062 crores followed by employees expenses of Rs.7281 crores. The transmission charges payable to PSTCL are Rs.1651 crores.
Punjab govt paid its own power subsidy bill for 2023-24 to PSPCL; powercom awaiting promised pending amount . “For 2024-25, the power subsidy payable by the Punjab Government has been assessed at Rs.21910 crores. With the pending Rs 1900 crores of 2023-24, the state govt has to release Rs 23,800 crores” said a senior functionary of the powercom.