AAP govt's free electricity scheme in Delhi - What's the truth?

NEW DELHI: While Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is seeking votes on good governance and keeping its promise of providing free electricity, the Zee Media has come across several residents claiming how the Arvind Kejriwal government has been cheating people in the name of giving subsidised electricity.

During its investigation, the Zee Media team came across two people - Luv Malik, a resident of Rohini Sector 11, and Yashpal Sharma, a senior citizen, who claimed that they didn't get any benefit of Delhi government's tall claim of providing subsidised or free electricity if the consumption falls below 200 units.

Luv Mallik claimed that in the electricity bill for the month of June last year, the total units consumed was just three units but he was charged Rs 2,150 for the same.

Going by Kejriwal's announcement of free electricity up to 200 units every month, the power department should have exempted the charges, he said. Since then, he has made several visits to the local power department for an explanation and waiver but is yet to get any favourable replies and exemption for the said bill.

"Under the AAP government's scheme, the bill for usage of 3kw units should be zero rupees. If Kejriwal wants to sit and talk on this issue with me, I'm ready for it.  He has fooled and betrayed the Delhites and has given profit to the electricity suppliers. Kejriwal Ji is the same person who used to climb up on the electricity pole and cut the electricity. When there was a different party in the power, he used to tell the public that you cut the electricity from the pole and tell them that Kejriwal has done it. So, where is Kejriwal Ji now after becoming the Chief Minister," Malik said.

Revealing his story, senior citizen Yashpal Sharma said, ''I have paid Rs 1,360 for 24 units of electricity consumed, that too, when I opened my shop for just ten days, for the rest twenty days, it was closed because I am a diabetic patient and not in good health. I had to finally pay Rs 1,360 for the bill, so where are the benefits?''   

''I can vouch for the fact that more than 90% of people, even the educated ones, don't understand a lot of things mentioned in the electricity bills. They don't understand it but they have to pay the charges as it is a necessity. Since they pay the bill, they don't have to experience a power cut. So, this is the situation right now where we have to pay the bill without even understanding it,'' Sharma said.

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Sharma added, ''Except for the basic tariff, the power companies are charging 11% for PPAC, 4.5% for the pension fund for old employees and electricity tax surcharge of 5%. So, if you look at your bills now, there has been an increase of more than 50% between 2014 and 2019.'' 

It may be recalled that Arvind Kejriwal had announced free power up to 200 units every month - a move which he said will benefit 3.2 million residents of Delhi. Any Delhi consumer consuming up to 200 units of electricity will not be charged a single Rupee. Those consuming between 201-400 units will receive approximately 50% subsidy, he had announced then. 

It turned out to be a major game-changer for AAP given the fact that the cost of 200 units of electricity comes around Rs 1,400 in Mumbai, Rs 1,910 in Gurugram and Rs 1,310 in UP.  Interestingly, electricity tariff in Delhi has also not changed in the last five years. At that time, the scheme cost the state's exchequer around Rs 1,670 crore annually. Kejriwal said that this will be managed by controlling pilferage and theft by consumers in connivance with corrupt officials.

However, it has now come to light that most of the electricity consumers are unaware of various components like fixed charges, power tariff, PPCA mentioned in the bills.

Replying to an RTI query, Delhi's Department of Power had said in May 2019 that the Arvind Kejriwal government had increased the power subsidy from Rs 300 crore to Rs 1,427 crore in the year 2015, to Rs 1,477 crore in 2016, Rs 1,277 crore in the year 2017 and Rs 1,699 crore in 2018.

-According to it, BRPL was given a subsidy of Rs 287 crore between April 1, 2013, to March 2014, BYPL Rs 287 crore and TPDDPL Rs 166 crore, a total subsidy of Rs 621 crore.

- Between 2014-15, the three power companies were given a subsidy of Rs 301 crore.

- Between 2015-16, the three companies received a total subsidy of Rs 1,427 crore.

-Between 2016-17, the figure reached Rs 1,277 crore.

-Between 2017-18, the govt a total subsidy of Rs 1,276 crore.

-Between 2018-19, the Delhi government gave a record subsidy of Rs 1691 crore to thee companies.

In total, the Delhi government gave a subsidy of Rs 6,595 crore to power companies like BYPL, BRPL and TPDDL from the public exchequer in all these years.

Importantly, the 2018 audit report also mentioned that the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission found several irregularities and discrepancies in the electricity records maintained by the DISCOMS.

All this points to facts that to give subsidy to power companies, the Delhi government extracted money from common people by levying charges on components like fixed charges, power tariff, PPCA mentioned in the electricity bills.

However, senior AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has denied any financial wrongdoing in the process of supplying subsidised power to Delhi residents.

''Today, the difference between Delhi and Noida is that the Delhi people who are paying zero rupees for their bills, the same type of householders in the neighbouring BJP ruled cities are paying around 3000-4000 rupees and the people are noticing these things,'' Sisodia said.