Chandigarh, Dec 8, : The Punjab government has offered subsidy of power tariffs up to Rs 6,760 crore and exemption from electricity duty worth Rs 156 crore to encourage investment.This was according to a senior official on Wednesday. Invest Punjab CEO Rajat Agarwal stated that the government has been increasing its subsidy bill by offering power supply at flat Rs 5, per unit, and extending subsidy for small, medium, and large industries for many years.
He stated that the data compiled and maintained by Invest Punjab, the state’s investment promotion agency, showed that the current fiscal’s power subsidy bill for the industry was estimated at Rs 2,266 crore.
He said that the power subsidy bill was Rs 1,559 crore for 2020-21, Rs 1,480 crore for 2019-20, and Rs 1,455 million in 2018-19.
In the last four years, subsidies and cheaper power have led to an increase in the number and production of industries in the state.
This can be seen in the marked increase in both power connections and connection loads in the industrial sector.
According to official data, the state’s connection load exceeded 10,000 MW in fiscal 2020-21.
Year-to-year analysis revealed that the total number of connections increased from 131 899 in 2016-17, to 146 899 in 2020-21.
The connection load also increased from 8,891MW in 2016-17, to 10,110MW in 2020-21.
The industry has used power in excess of 13,958 million units (MUs), from 2016,-17, to 16,428 MUS in 2020-21.
“To ease the pain of medium-scale industries, the Punjab government has waived 50 percent of fixed charges for industry consumers who load up to 100 KVA.These concessions will provide relief to the state’s industry,” Agarwal said.
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