Patna: In a major relief to the power consumers of Bihar, the state cabinet on Friday gave its nod to provide 125 units of free electricity to the 1.67 crore domestic consumers of the state.
Notably, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Thursday made the announcement to give free power upto 125 units. The decision will come into effect from August 1, 2025.
Kumar made the announcement on his social media account “X” stating that “…Now we have decided that all the domestic power consumers will not have to make any payment for using 125 units of electricity from August 1 this year. This will benefit 1.67 crore families in the state.”
“The cabinet has taken a decision to provide cent per cent subsidy for those consumers who consume upto 125 units of electricity,” Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told reporters here at a press conference in a post cabinet meeting.
Promotion of solar energy
Yadav- who was accompanied by Development Commissioner Pratyaya Amrit and Energy Department’s Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh- said that it has been decided to reduce the usage of conventional energy and increase the use of non conventional energy.
In order to promote solar energy, the state government has decided to install 1.1 KW capacity rooftop solar panels. The government would give cent per cent subsidy to 58.89 lakh Kutir Jyoti power consumers (BPL) for installing rooftop solar plants.
Out of 1.86 crore domestic power consumers of the state, 1.67 crore consumers consume upto 125 units per month, Development Commissioner Pratyaya Amrit said while making it clear that it would provide 100 per cent subsidy upto 125 units. No fixed charge & other charges will be levied on those consuming upto 125 units, he added
Today’s decision would benefit every category of consumers such as farmers, all types of domestic consumers, Amrit said adding that the relief would reflect in the energy bill of July month.
The decision to give free 125 units will not (repeat) will not be applicable to other consumers such as commercial, industrial.
Consumers using above 125 units will continue to get subsidised rate
Making it amply clear that the move will be applicable to all types of 1.86 crore domestic consumers across the state, energy department’s secretary and Bihar State Power Holding Company Ltd (BSPHCL), Patna Chairman-cum-Managing Director Manoj Kumar Singh said that “consumers using above 125 units will continue to get subsidised rate of electricity under Mukhya Mantri Vidyut Upbhokta Sahayta Yojana.”
Suppose, a person consumes 200 units of electricity in a month, 125 units will be deducted from 200 consumed units and the person will be charged on the remaining 75 units at subsidised rate as usual.
“All the domestic consumers are getting covered with the decision. No family will be spared from the benefit,” Singh added.
Talking about installing rooftop solar panels for Kutir Jyoti (BPL) consumers, Singh said that Rs 60,000 is the cost for installing rooftop solar panels and they will get Rs 33,000 as subsidy under PM Surya Ghar Yojana and the remaining cost of Rs 27,000 will be borne by the state government.
Additional financial burden
The move to give free power upto 125 units is expected to increase the state’s subsidy burden.
The state government is, currently, giving annual subsidy of Rs 15,995 crore to power consumers in the current financial year which is four per cent more than the previous year’s subsidy amount of Rs 15343 crore.
The announcement of subsidised free power will put additional financial burden of Rs 3797 crore thus, taking the total annual subsidy amount to Rs 19792 crore.
