Chandigarh residents will have to shell out more for power now

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 11

City residents will have to shell out more for power as the Chandigarh Administration has approved a proposal of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to levy municipal cess on power bills. The cess will be 10 paise per unit. This will put additional burden on consumers, who are already paying extra charges for electricity on account of FPPCA charges. In October 2018, the General House of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had approved the imposition of municipal cess on consumption of power.

The proposal was brought on the lines of Punjab, where this cess is levied. The MC aims to earn a revenue of nearly Rs 10-17 crore per annum from this cess.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida confirmed that the proposal had been approved. He said the electricity would still be cheaper in the city as compared to Punjab and Haryana. Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla opposed the cess, saying that already the power bills in Chandigarh were giving “a shock” to residents. The new cess will put additional burden on the consumers as the Administration had recently approved the cow cess on various services.

The cow cess has been imposed on liquor bottles and the rate has been fixed at Rs 5 per bottle for country liquor and Rs 10 and Rs 5 per bottle on whisky and beer, respectively. Electricity consumers will also have to pay 2 paise per unit as cow cess. There are around 2 lakh electricity consumers in Chandigarh.

Sources in the MC said the step would help the cash-starved MC serve people better as many development works had been stopped due to paucity of funds.