Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, May 25: Rattled by the drubbing at the recently concluded Parliamentary polls, the Congress- National Conference (NC) coalition is mulling reduction in power tariff to lure consumers in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the issue was also discussed informally taken up by some of the Ministers with Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah in the Cabinet meeting which was held on May 22 in summer capital”.
“Though the proposal didn’t find any mention on the official agenda of the Cabinet, it definitely figured on the political agenda of the coalition. With Assembly elections knocking at the doors of the State, the Government needs to implement such welfare measure at the earliest”, asserted two of the Cabinet colleagues, who were present in the meeting.
Political experts opined that immediately after the poll debacle, the Coalition Government has initiated serious damage-control exercise and launched a slew of measures to provide relief to the electorate, which has given mandate against their policies in just concluded Parliamentary elections.
Official sources said, “while no exercise had formally been initiated, there has been verbal discussion with several Ministers and even the Chief Minister”.
Elaborating over the possibility of reduction in power tariff, sources said, “the Government on its own has no power to reduce the power tariff as it falls under the exclusive domain of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC). Interestingly, presently the tariff enjoyed by consumers of the State is the lowest in comparison to their counterparts in the rest of country”.
“The Government has two options to provide the much sought-after relief to the consumers. First option for the Government is to reduce the Electricity duty, which is nearly 22 % as of now and for exercising this option, the Government doesn’t need to seek the consent of State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) – the body that has the mandate to decide power tariff in the State”.
“Second option is to provide power subsidy to certain consumers as was done by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, led by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi”, sources said, adding “for exercising this option the Government shall have to pay the entire subsidy amount on behalf of consumers to the SERC in advance”.
Section 59 of the Jammu and Kashmir Electricity Act, 2010 states, “if the Government requires the grant of any subsidy to any consumer or class of consumers in the tariff determined by the Commission under Section 56, the Government shall, notwithstanding any directions which may be given under Section 84, pay, in advance and in such manner as may be specified, the amount to compensate the person affected by the grant of subsidy in the manner the Commission may direct, as a condition for the licensee or any other person concerned to implement the subsidy provided for by the Government”.
“Provided that no such direction of the Government shall be operative if the payment is not made in accordance with the provisions contained in this Section and the tariff fixed by the Commission shall be applicable from the date of issue of orders by the Commission in this regard”, the Act added further.
Pertinently on December 31, 2013 the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government had declared a 50% cut in electricity tariffs. The decision to subsidise power tariff involved a cash outgo of Rs. 61 crore in the three months, was taken by former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after a meeting of the Cabinet.
“However, in case of Jammu and Kashmir, the decision of granting subsidy can be implemented with any difficulty as all the power entities are owned by the State Government only”, sources asserted.
Ever since the declaration of poll results, the State Government has initiated a slew of measures for luring the voters before the onset of Assembly elections.
On May 21 the State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, approved the scraping of the recruitment policy, under which the basic stipend (fixed salary grades) was to be provided to the persons employed in various Government departments for first five years. On the same day, the Government also lifted the four year ban on the Short Message Service (SMS) on prepaid cell phones in a bid to woo the people ahead of the Assembly polls slated later this year.
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