THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty clarified that although the amount collected by KSEB as electricity duty has been ordered to be transferred to the government, the power subsidy of the weaker sections will not be stopped.

Yesterday, Kerala Kaumudi had published news regarding the suspension of subsidy for 66 lakh families. The minister was responding to the news published by 'Kerala Kaumudi' that 66 lakh poor families will lose subsidy according to the new order. However, the minister said that around 77 lakh people from the weaker sections are receiving subsidies and that the government has not given any order to cancel the subsidy.

Full electricity charge is subsidized for domestic consumers with monthly consumption of up to 30 units and connected load up to 500 Watts. Electricity charges are subsidized for domestic consumers up to 120 units and household consumers living with life-saving appliances, BPL consumers with connected loads up to 1000W with monthly consumption of up to 50 units and agricultural consumers. The minister informed that all these will continue to be available.

Electricity Duty 1200 Cr

1200 crore is collected as duty annually. Each customer has to pay 10% of the energy charge. When KSEB became a company in 2013, a master trust was created to provide pensions. To finance this, two bonds were issued and the electricity duty amount was handed over to KSEB for a period of ten years to meet its obligations. The validity of this had expired on October 31, 2023. It was announced in this year's budget that the duty amount will be handed over to the government. The notification came out on November 1 accordingly.

The pension liability was around Rs 738 crore. In 2013, the government had proposed to subsidize up to Rs 400 crore remaining in duty revenue to the weaker sections. The new notification states that KSEB can take one percent of the duty amount as a collection charge and the rest should be handed over to the government. It does not say anything about subsidies. KSEB had written to the government seeking clarification on the continuation of the subsidy but did not receive a reply. It was in this situation that the subsidy had to be stopped.