Subsidy worth Rs 23K cr given to power consumers: Sharma

Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister AK Sharma said the had provided subsidies worth Rs 23,000 crore during the current fiscal 2022-23 to different categories of power consumers.

He said an additional subsidy of Rs 1,000 crore was made available to the consumers through the supplementary budget of 2022-23.

UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is working on war footing for installing 40 lakh smart meters across the state. So far 11.78 lakh smart meters have been installed in 12 cities. With the completion of this project, there will be no need for taking manual meter readings from the premises of the power consumers, the minister said here on Monday.

He said the results of effective measures taken by the power corporation to bring down the line losses were now visible. He said in 2016-17, line losses were 21.47 per cent which had come down to 17.62 per cent in January 2023. He said the aggregate transmission and distribution losses had reduced to 26.83 per cent from 28.81 per cent.

The minister said in special camps for resolving the problems faced by the power consumers, a total of 1.73 lakh complaints were received of which 1.46 lakh had been resolved. Moreover, the minister said, 71,000 complaints were resolved through the online SAMBHAV portal set up by the UPPCL.