Bihar: No hike in electricity prices, cabinet approves Rs 13,114 crore subsidy

The Bihar cabinet on Friday approved a proposal to allocate Rs 13,114 crore to provide subsidy to power consumers. The government has taken this step after the State Electricity Regulatory Commission recommended a 24.10 percent increase in electricity prices for all categories of consumers in the year 2023-24. In the meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it was decided to continue the relief being given to the electricity consumers.

Announcing this in the assembly, Nitish Kumar said, “The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government of the state has decided not to put additional burden on electricity consumers. The cabinet has today approved Rs 13,114 crore for subsidy to electricity consumers in the financial year 2023-24. He said that this amount is Rs 4,219 crore more than the Rs 8,895 crore allocated for subsidy to electricity consumers in the previous financial year (2022-23). Is.

Kumar said, “I had said earlier also that there should be ‘one country, one electricity rate’ across the country. Why do some states buy power from central government power houses at a higher cost?”

The Chief Minister said that the price of electricity should be uniform across the country. A senior official of the state’s energy department said, “After the decision of the cabinet, electricity consumers will pay the current prices of electricity in the new financial year starting from Saturday.” 24.10 percent increase was announced.