Birender cuts power subsidy
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 13
Treading a cautious path, the economist in Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh today brought down the total subsidy bill of the state from Rs 3264.67 crore to Rs 3055.61 crore for the year 2009-10. With the total fiscal deficit in the state having shot up to a whopping Rs 8,557 crore, the Finance Minister has chosen to cut down on the subsidy bill.

Since the subsidy bill mainly accounts for power subsidy to the farm sector, the Finance Minister has earmarked Rs 2778.43 crore for power subsidy, as against Rs 3005.98 crore subsidy last year. The remaining amount of Rs 277.18 crore has been earmarked for subsidy on agricultural implements, tubewells, etc.

Talking to TNS, the Finance Minister said it was because of initiatives taken by the Power Department that the total power subsidy bill had been brought down for the coming fiscal. “The segregation of agricultural feeders from rural domestic and industrial feeders will reduce the cost of power subsidy to the agricultural sector. Energy audit in the agricultural sector will also be encouraged to bring down the burden on the state exchequer,” he said.

Since last year Haryana has been paying the highest power subsidy to the farm sector in the country --- more than even Punjab, where power is provided free of cost to farmers. Haryana, unlike neighbouring Punjab, does not dole out free power to farmers, but subsidises it at 25 paise per unit.

Birender Singh said in the coming financial year, he was expecting the power subsidy bill to come down as a majority of agricultural and rural domestic feeders would be segregated. “In the last Budget, the Finance Department had proposed paying direct subsidy to the farmers. Once introduced, this will also reduce the power subsidy burden. We had asked the Power Department to examine how this can be implemented, and it is now in the process of running pilot projects in the state,” he said.

The Finance Minister said there were some initial glitches in its implementation as 60 per cent of the tubewell connections were unmetered. “Till the time all tubewell connections in the state are metered, the exact amount to be given to farmers cannot be worked out. Now, we are trying to run pilot projects and then implement the direct subsidy scheme across the state,” he said.