More than 40% consumers did not opt for power subsidy, says Delhi govt

More than 40 per cent of the 56.98 lakh domestic consumers did not opt for power subsidy provided by the Delhi government till the last date of application on October 31, officials said on Monday.

While more than 34 lakh domestic consumers applied for power subsidy, those who could not opt for it will have another chance to do so in the billing cycle of next month, they said.

A total of 22,81,900 (40 per cent) domestic consumers were yet to apply for the subsidy, officials said.

The Delhi government has made changes in its free electricity scheme deciding to provide subsidy to only those domestic consumers who apply for it.

Till Monday afternoon, 34.16 lakh applicants opted for the subsidy and the number may slightly increase by the end of the day, officials said.

"It means that many consumers have willingly given up subsidy. Chances are also that some consumers could not apply for the subsidy due to various reasons," a Delhi government officer said.

The data will be studied and reasons for more than 22 lakh people not applying for subsidy will be found out to see if genuine consumers failed to get covered by the subsidy scheme, said the officer.

The subsidy applicants included 15,54,646 consumers of BRPL discom, 8,49,756 BYPL consumers, over 10 lakh TPDDL consumers and 10,920 NDMC consumers, officials said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had launched the process for subsidy application on September 14, issuing a mobile number for power consumers to fill up forms.

He had said any consumer that could not apply for the subsidy for the month of October after the last date of October 31, would be able to apply for it in the billing cycle of next month.

The subsidy application can be submitted through online and offline modes.

The average number of power subsidy beneficiaries in Delhi is around 47 lakh. The number varies from month to month depending on the consumption pattern of individual consumers.

Out of 47 lakh electricity consumers who availed the subsidy before the new system came in place, nearly 30 lakh were those who got zero bills and 16-17 lakh who received 50 per cent subsidy, officials said.

At present, consumers with monthly consumption of less than 200 units do not have to pay any charges and those with up to 400 units per month consumption get 50 per cent subsidy.

There were 48.29 lakh subsidy beneficiaries in April 2021. The number went down in summer months of May (45.8 lakh), June (39.56 lakh), and July (34.12 lakh), with increased use of electricity for cooling purposes.

In winter months, the number of subsidy beneficiaries started increasing from 53.61 lakh in November to 54.86 lakh in December 2021 and 51.79 lakh in January and 52.82 lakh in February 2022, indicating less use of electricity.

The chief minister had said that the option of giving up power subsidy needs to be provided as many consumers who were able to pay their complete electricity bills wanted to do so.

More than 97 per cent of Delhi government's budgetary allocation for the power department, worth Rs 3,340 crore, in the 2022-23 financial year was earmarked for subsidy scheme.

The subsidy amount in 2022-23 was Rs 3,250 crore. It was Rs 3,090 crore in financial year 2021-22.