Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday ruled out power tariff hike in 2023-24 for over 76 lakh electricity consumers in the state.

Khattar said during the year 2022-2023, Rs 2 per unit was charged for zero to 50 units and Rs 2.50 will be charged for 51 to 100 units. In category two, Rs 2.75 was charged from 0 to 150 units, Rs 5.25 from 150 to 250 units, Rs 6.30 from 251 to 500 units and Rs 7.10 from 501 to 800 units.

“This year also there has been no change in the fixed rates of category one and two of domestic consumers,” he said.

Khattar said in the agriculture sector, Rs 200 per horsepower per year has been fixed for tubewells with motors of 15 horsepower and above. Likewise, the rates fixed at Rs 15 per horsepower per month for unmetered tubewells and Rs 12 per horsepower per month for metered tubewells above 15 horsepower will continue during the year 2023-24 as well.

The CM said the subsidy to the agriculture sector will continue as before. Stating that ‘power saving is power generation’, he said that for this, the government has replaced old electrical wiring on a large scale besides new condensers have been installed on old transformers to reduce line losses.

He said new sub-stations and old stations have been increased for uninterrupted power supply to the consumers. This apart, segregation of feeders has been done to reduce the load.

The CM said unprecedented power reforms have been carried out in Haryana in the last eight years which have garnered appreciation from Union power minister Raj Kumar Singh and have also been studied by the central government team.

“As a result of this, the focus has been on reducing the line losses and today the line losses have come down to 13.43 per cent which used to be 25 to 30 per cent in the previous governments. The state government has made elaborate arrangements to ensure regular power supply to the consumers,” he added.

Khattar said giving relief to the consumers, the state government has not made any change in the electricity rates. He said the power tariffs are decided by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission and not the government. “The Commission has also issued the orders for electricity rates for the year 2023-2024, which has been posted on its website,” he said.

The CM said it has been a great example of power management, that despite the less availability of electricity many times, the state government provided complete electricity to the consumers.