Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Thursday that the government would underwrite up to 50% of the additional charge incurred by households during the stay-at-home phase of the lockdown period.
At his customary COVID-19 news briefing here, Mr. Vijayan said defaulters need not fear that their power connections would be severed. They could pay the February-May electricity bill by instalments spaced over an extended period of five months beginning in July.
He said power would continue to be free for consumers who drew less than 40 units of energy monthly irrespective of the increase in their electricity usage during the lockdown. However, the connected load capacity of such beneficiaries should be less than 500 watts. Households that utilise up to 40 units of power a month and have a connected load capacity less than 1,000 watts would be billed ₹1.50 per unit irrespective of their extra usage if any.
Less than 50 units
The government would bear 50% of the cost of the extra bill incurred by households that consumed less than 50 units a month.
Domestic consumers who tap up to 100 units a month from the grid would get a 30% cut on their extra usage bill. Consumers in the more than 150 units a month slab could expect their additional usage bill to be slashed by 20%.
The subsidies would set the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) back by an estimated ₹200 crore. More than 90 lakh families would benefit from the decision.
Mr. Vijayan said that the assistance was only for households. The power tariff remained unchanged.
Several commercial establishments had also received huge power bills despite remaining closed for the better part of the past three months. The government would consider their case sympathetically at a later stage.
