Bhopal: Energy Minister Priyavrat Singh said that under the fulfillment of the promise of ‘Electricity bill of farmers to be halved’, in the manifesto the Indira Kisan Jyoti Yojana will be implemented and agricultural consumers of up to 10 Horse Power (HP), will now be given electricity at half rate. Now they will get electricity at 44 paise per unit for irrigation.
Right now, they are getting electricity at 88 paise per unit. Singh said that this point of the manifesto will be ensured on the implementation of the scheme from April-2019.
Singh informed that according to the tariff fixed by the Power Regulatory Commission, if the farmer is a regular agricultural consumer of 5 Horse Power, his electricity bill would be of Rs 46,0 55 annually. In this the farmer pays Rs 7,000 at the rate of 88 paise per unit. The remaining amount of Rs 39,055 was paid by the government.
Singh said that now the government has taken the decision that the farmer will pay only Rs 3,500 out of Rs 46,055. This rate will now be 44 paise per unit. The remaining amount of Rs 42,555 will be paid by the government. So for now government will be given total subsidy amounting to Rs 10,400 crores instead of Rs 9,700 crores as given earlier.
At the same time, farmers of upto 10 Horse Power will now have to pay Rs 700 per HP per year instead of Rs 1400. This will prove beneficial for about 19 lakh farmers. Now Rs 1.92 per unit instead of Rs 3.84 units will be taken from temporary agricultural consumers. The electricity charge of the metered permanent agriculture connection will be halved.
The Energy Minister informed that the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers with one hectare land of up to 5 HP (Antyodaya family) will be given full concession on the electricity bill as before which will benefit about 8 lakh consumers.
Under the scheme, 16 lakh regular consumers of up to 5 Horse Power, about 3 lakh regular and 2 lakh temporary agricultural consumers 5 to 10 HP will receive benefits. In addition to this, free power facility will continue to 8 lakh farmers of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.