Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday, March 31, announced a subsidy of Rs 13,114 crore to keep the electricity prices unchanged. The chief minister said in the Bihar Assembly the government will not increase the electricity tariff.
"Our Cabinet has decided that we will not allow the electricity tariff to increase for the people of Bihar and the tariffs will remain the same as it was last year. For that, we have increased the subsidy from Rs 8,895 crore to Rs 13,114 crore," CM Nitish Kumar said, according to ANI.
The CM also accused the central government of charging higher electricity rates from Bihar despite it being in the ‘poor state’ category.
He mentioned that the state of Maharashtra gets electricity at Rs 4.32 per unit from the Centre despite being the richest state, while the rates for Bihar have been hiked to Rs 5.82 per unit.
Last week, the Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) had announced a hike of over 24 percent in electricity tariff for the financial year 2023-24. But, the commission had clarified that the per unit cost of electricity will be determined based on the subsidies provided by the government.
CM Nitish Kumar said the regulatory body decides the rates and the final decision is up to his government.
“Madhya Pradesh gets electricity for Rs 3.49 per unit. The Centre should think about 'gareeb rajya,’ we get costly electricity. We have been demanding one nation one tariff for long," added the CM.
The move was lauded by Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, who called it a decision in favour of the farmers and the people of Bihar.
The revised rates were set to come into effect from April 1, but now with the subsidy announcement, consumers will not have to bear the extra burden.
BERC President Shishir Sinha had also informed that fixed charges for electricity were increased by more than double whereas the electricity rate slabs were reduced from three to two.
