CHANDIGARH: Punjab government has again defaulted this year on payment of complete power subsidy to the PSPCL for the supply of free/subsidized power to various categories of consumers. During the last financial year 2020-21 the government has defaulted by Rs.6743 crore and has paid Rs.9657 crores against a total due of Rs. 16400 crore.
The subsidy paid for the agriculture sector is Rs.6056 crore, for domestic consumers Rs. 1610 crore and for industrial consumers, the amount paid is Rs. 1990 crore. During the financial year 2019-20, the defaulting amount was Rs. 5578 crore and this has increased to Rs.6743 crores in the financial year 2020-21.
The defaulting amount along with interest will be added to the subsidy amount of the current financial year and this will be over Rs. 17000 crore.
Against the likely subsidy amount of over Rs. 17000 crore , Punjab Government has provided Rs 10621
crores as a subsidy to various categories in the budget for the current financial year An amount of Rs. 7, 180 crores have been provided for14.23 lakh farmers, Rs.1928 crores for 1.38 lakh industrial consumers, and Rs. 1513 crore for 24.31 lakh SC, BC, non -SC BPL Domestic consumers.
The Government in its budget has claimed that Rs. 23, 851 crores has been provided to farmers during the past four years.