Govt. may withdraw power subsidy

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, DEC. 8. The Government has told the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) that it is seriously considering to withdraw both ``subsidy and cross-subsidy'' schemes extended to various categories of electricity consumers in a phased manner.

Representing the Government, the Secretary, Department of Energy, Mr. K.P. Pandey, who presented the Government's point of view before the Commission here on Friday, said there was a need to evolve an unambiguous and comprehensive policy on the issue, and the Government was contemplating on it. Asked about the priority sectors to be considered for distributing the budgetary allocation on account of a subsidy of Rs. 879 crores extended to the KPTCL, Mr. Pandey said the budgetary allocation was a lumpsum amount and no specific sector was identified.

The KPTCL authorities pointed out that there was a huge gap of Rs. 1,421 crores between the subsidy extended by the Government and tariff arrears to be paid by it. They sought to know whether the entire tariff amount of Rs. 2,300 crores, which comes under the subsidy schemes, would be borne by the Government as it had resolved to evolve a uniform tariff structure. The Government failed to give a convincing reply.

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Section  : Southern States
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