PUNJAB/BHAGWANT MANN : THE PRICE OF POWER

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann knows there is little room to manoeuvre, but he is trying to stay true to the pre-poll promises of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). So, following on the Delhi AAP model, every domestic consumer in Punjab will now get 300 units of free power per nonth from July this year. But it comes with a rider-cross the threshold and use more, and you pay for all of it.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Among those who get a pass are Dalit homes, along with those of backward communities and freedom fighters; they will pay only for the extra power they use. Here, too, later clarifications sequestered the claimants-only those with a 1KV connection and do not pay income tax are eligible.

Of course, the largesse comes with a cost. Budget documents show that Punjab's power subsidy bill for 2020-21 was Rs 10,668 crore, of which Rs 3,488 crore went to the state's electricity distributor, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL), to subsidise domestic supplies. The new proposition will put further pressure, worth about Rs 1,800 crore, on the state exchequer. Punjab has to satisfy 8 million domestic electricity consumers.

Mann has inherited an over-leveraged balance sheet with over Rs 2.82 lakh crore in cumulative debt and depleting revenue sources. His cup of woes does not end there. In the next two months, the Centre's commitment to compensate for GST revenue shortfalls ends. This had provided almost Rs 15,000 crore to the state in the past five years. Punjab also has yet to implement the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. The state already has committed expenditure of over Rs 40,000 crore in salaries and pensions. Implementing the commission's recommendations will require another Rs 5,000 crore. Meanwhile, Mann's cabinet has cleared the decks to fill 25,000 vacancies this fiscal.