AAP government to retain subsidies on power, water

The AAP government is reportedly in the process of extending subsidies on power and water to Delhiites in the fiscal year 2016-17. It is all set to make this announcement in its upcoming Budget Session beginning March 22. The power and water subsidies are likely to cost about Rs 1,800 crore to the exchequer. In the current financial year, power and water subsidies had reportedly cost about Rs 1,600 crore.

The Kejriwal government had earlier said that both power and water subsidies were for a period of one year. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced 50 per cent subsidy on consumers using up to 400 units of electricity every month. He had also announced free supply of 20,000 litres of drinking water every month to each household. In the current financial year, the subsidies on power had cost about Rs 1,400 crore and that on water had cost about Rs 200 crore to the state exchequer. But due to increase in the number of consumers and electricity consumption, the subsidy on power is likely to cost Rs 1,600 crore in 2016-17.

During former chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s tenure, the city government used to provide 50 per cent subsidy to households consuming up to 200 units every month. The ones consuming between 200 and 400 units of power were given Rs 1 subsidy on each unit. The AAP government is also in the process of according priority to health, education, transport and public works department in its 2016-17 Budget. A home department proposal to allocate Rs 600 crore for purchase of CCTV cameras and Rs 150 crore for setting up streetlights at dark spots is also under active consideration.

The government is also in the process of identifying 21 Assembly constituencies to seek inputs from citizens for its second “Swaraj Budget.” In the 2015-16 Budget, the AAP government had allocated largest amount of '9,836 crore for education, an increase of 106 per cent over the previous budget. The health sector had received second highest allocation of Rs 4,787 crore, followed by transport with Rs 5,085 crore, which is 23 per cent more than the allocation of 2014-15. For 11 Assembly segments from where the AAP government had directly sought inputs from citizens, allocation of Rs 20 crore for each segment was made as a pilot project under the Swaraj Fund. For the remaining 59 seats, an amount of Rs 50 lakh each was proposed. This time, in addition to these 11 constituencies, the AAP government plans to take inputs from people in 10 more Assembly segments.

The AAP government, which has time and again been demanding additional annual budgetary allocation of Rs 5,000 crore from the Centre, has itself been able to spend only 49.58 per cent of the total money it had allocated in its Budget for the current financial year. The Kejriwal government, which had allocated Rs 41,129 crore for 2015-16 financial year, had earmarked a sum of Rs 19,000 crore for planned projects. Of the planned funds, the AAP government till January 31 ended up spending just 46.38 per cent on education, 40.56 per cent on medical institutions and 61.81 per cent on public health. In all, the government was able to spend only 49.58 per cent of the total plan expenditure till January 31.