Eyes on Poll, UPA plans to extend electricity subsidy for BPL

Call it the Aam Admi Party effect. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the central government has decided to not review the electricity subsidy provided to BPL families under the national electricity policy. Rather the government has left it for the next government to take a decision on the issue.

According to the Central government's estimates, there are 12 crore BPL families in the country. However, not all of them have electricity connections.

Under the National Electricity Policy the government had provisioned a special support for the BPL households. The policy provided subsidy of 50% of the average cost of supply to the BPL households that consumed up to 30 units per month. However, the policy said the provision will be reviewed after five years. While the policy was kept intact till 2014, now the government in its cabinet note has removed the clause that required its periodic revision and instead has mentioned that the appropriate commission (Electricity Regulatory Commission) 'may spell out a roadmap for reduction of all subsidies'.

The state governments provide electricity subsidy to BPL families in the range of Rs1 to Rs3 per unit. The overall subsidy as per the policy guidelines comes to over Rs1,000 crore.

Interestingly, in 2013, Congress government in Maharashtra led by Prithviraj Chouhan had waived domestic consumers' electricity bills of BPL category till June 30, 2013. The government payed Rs225 crore from its coffers to woo the BPL consumers.

The UPA government also provides free electricity connections to BPL households at the rate of Rs3,000 a connection in villages under its scheme Rajiv Grameen Vidiyutikaran Yojna.

The UPA government has put on hold many subsidy reforms in the election year including the fuel and LPG cylinder subsidies.