The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Saturday announced to not increase the power tariff in the national capital for the sixth time in a row, AAP said in a statement.
The decision was announced yesterday by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) regarding no hike in power tariffs in the city for 2020-21 in view of coronavirus pandemic, it said.
On the decision, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Congratulations to the people of Delhi. On one hand, while electricity rates are increasing year after year across the country, Delhi has not allowed the electricity rate to rise for six years and also reduced the rate in some areas. It is historic. This is happening because you formed an honest Government in Delhi.”
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the DERC said that there will be no change in the tariff for March due to no increase in the revenue of the power distribution firms, like the BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL), BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL), Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
After coming to power in 2015, with a landslide victory – Arvind Kejriwal had slashed the tariffs by 50%.
Since then the AAP government has provided relief to the people of Delhi in terms of no increase in electricity rates.
Arvind Kejriwal had recently said that in the wake of the Coronavirus lockdown, the revenue of the Delhi government has fallen from Rs 3,500 crores in April month of the previous years to Rs 300 crores in 2020.
The decision to not increase the power tariff despite the fallen levels of revenue in the state has been welcomed by the people of Delhi and will provide relief to over 62 lakh consumers.
With the Corona pandemic and its successive lockdown, there were cutdowns in salaries and people had also started working from home.
CM Kejriwal has time and again stated that the AAP government is the government supporting the common people. In September 2019, around 14 lakh consumers in Delhi had received zero electricity bills. Around 26 lakh families have received zero electricity bills in the month of November-December 2019.
The power tariff in Delhi is zero rupees from 0 to 200 units and 50 per cent subsidy from 201 to 400 units.