Power regulator puts subsidy ball in govt’s court
Sukhdeep Kaur
Tuesday , Jan 05, 2010

In an embarrassment to the Akali-BJP government, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has dismissed the government’s petition seeking deferment of the tariff hike announced in September. This means that now it is up to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to decide on whether to keep ally BJP in good humour by committing more subsidy to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB).

The BJP is demanding that the government also bear the burden of the nearly Rs 800 crore hike on domestic, commercial and industrial consumers as it does for the farm sector. The government has this year committed an additional Rs 542 crore to compensate the board for hike in tariffs of agricultural pumpsets (AP) category, taking the total power subsidy bill of the state this year to Rs 3142 crore.