Now pay Rs 2/unit till 400 units of power

New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided to extend a subsidy of Rs 2 per unit to consumers who uses upto 400 units of electricity a month, deputy chief minister subsidy said on Wednesday. The decision was approved in a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Sisodia said and added that consumers who use up to 100 units a month would get an extra subsidy of Rs 100 per bill.

For consumers who use upto 200 units, the rate would be Rs 1 per unit and from 201-400 units it would Rs 2.5. “The Cabinet approved the department of power’s proposal for revised extension of subsidy for electricity consumers consuming upto 400 units per month at a flat rate of Rs two per unit,” an official statement said.

Addressing media after the Cabinet meeting, Mr Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said: “After we came to power, we reduced the electricity rates for people who use up to 400 units by half.

In the past three years, we have not allowed the electricity rates to increase.” The Cabinet also approved the special subsidy for lawyers using chambers within the premises of premises of court complexes.

The subsidy for lawyers will be the same as for domestic consumers and they will now be treated as domestic consumers. (Earlier, lawyers were being charged on commercial rates for their chambers electricity bills).

“The Cabinet decision will benefit around 41 lakh domestic electricity consumers of Delhi and their monthly savings will increase. The budgetary allocation for electricity subsidy for the financial year 2018-19 is Rs 1,830 crore,” the statement added.

“The Cabinet asked the Delhi Electricity Regulat-ory Commission to conduct a special audit of subsidy amount through an external auditor to ensure its actual passage to the consumers. Power distribution companies continue to owe a cumulative amount of Rs 8,000 crore to Delhi government owned DTL and IPGCL-PPCL, therefore the subsidy amount will be credited to these government owned utilities,” it said.

The government has also decided to add a total of 1,716 beds in four city hospitals at a cost of Rs 657.51 crore, the deputy CM said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. The government would add 419 beds in Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital in Pitampura, 463 beds in Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini, 472 beds in Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in Rajouri Garden and 362 beds in Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri.

Once completed, the bed capacity of these four hospitals together would go up to 2,941 from the current 1,225.