Bihar Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said that special arrangements have been made by the Nitish government to provide electricity at affordable rates to the BPL families of the state. He said that the tariff of electricity consumers is decided by the Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission. There are a total of about 59 lakh consumers of BPL family category in the state, out of which 10 lakh consumers have installed smart meters in their premises. The Energy Minister said that in order to provide extremely cheap electricity to the BPL families of the state, most of the 73% of the fixed tariff is being subsidized by the state government.
He said that the people of Bihar should know about Pt. Cheaper electricity is being provided compared to big neighboring states like Bengal and UP. Under the Chief Minister Electricity Consumer Assistance Scheme, a grant of Rs 15,343 crore has been approved by the state government for the financial year 2024-05 to the electricity consumers of the state. Thus, out of the electricity rate of Rs 7.42 per unit fixed by the Regulatory Commission for BPL category consumers, Rs 5.45 per unit is borne by the state government and the consumers of this category are billed at the rate of only Rs 1.97 per unit.
Meter reader at consumer’s residence
The Energy Minister said that in addition to the facility of recharge through meter reader at their residence, electricity bill collection counters, Common Service Center (CSC) working at Panchayat level, smart meter mobile app and various other online services will be available to recharge consumers with smart prepaid meters. Medium is available. Information is given through SMS if the prepaid meter balance is less than the consumer’s 7 day average consumption and the information is given again when the balance becomes zero. The minister said that after this, power is cut on the 5th day in rural areas and on the 3rd day in urban areas only on working days from 10 am to 2 pm.
Push button facility in smart prepaid meter
The Energy Minister said that the facility of push button has been provided in the smart prepaid meters of consumers in rural areas, using which people can keep the power supply running even if there is a negative balance for 72 hours i.e. 3 days. Also, it has been decided that before installing the smart prepaid meter, the electricity companies should make the consumers aware about its working system. A large-scale awareness campaign is being run to make consumers aware before installing smart prepaid meters.