UP incurs Rs 12,500 crore/year for cheaper power to farmers, poor

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Feb 22, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government incurs Rs 12,500 crore annually for providing cheaper power to the farmers and poor households in the state.

According to UP energy minister Shrikant Sharma, the amount is provided as subsidy to state power utility UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL). “This subsidy amount was merely Rs 5,600 crore in the previous regime.”

The farmers and poor households are being supplied electricity at the subsidised tariff of Rs 1.20 and Rs 3 per unit (up to 100 units per month) against the procurement/generation cost of Rs 7.50 per unit incurred by the UPPCL, he claimed.

He said the state farmers were compelled to irrigate their agricultural field with diesel gensets, which cost nearly Rs 25 per unit, due to sub-optimum electricity supply to the rural areas in the earlier regime. Now, the farmers are getting 10 hrs of electricity for irrigation purposes, which has pared their cost to Rs 1.20 per unit, he added.