look news india
The Punjab government has already announced an increase in the prices of petrol and diesel and domestic electricity rates have also been increased. This has come as a shock to the people of the state. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema announced this after the Punjab Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
VAT has been increased by 61 paise on petrol and 92 paise on diesel. This will give the government an additional income of Rs 150 crore from petrol and Rs 392 crore from diesel. Along with this, the cheap electricity of Rs 3 per unit for electricity consumers up to 7 kilowatts has also been stopped. That is, now the electricity rate has been increased by Rs 3 for consumers up to 7 kilowatts.
This will save the Punjab government an additional Rs 1800 crore. In fact, before coming to power, the Aam Aadmi Party had promised to give 300 units of free electricity to consumers in its election manifesto. The AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann in Punjab started giving 300 units of free electricity every month to domestic electricity consumers in July 2022 after assuming power in March 2022. In return, the state government has to pay Rs 5629 crore annually to Powercom.
Since the time of the previous Congress government, a separate subsidy of Rs 3 per unit has been given to domestic electricity consumers up to 7 kW load in the state and in return the Punjab government has to pay Powercom. Tubewell bills of farmers have been waived since the time of the Akali government. The government has to spend a lot to provide free bus travel to women and other facilities to the people. In such a situation, there is a huge difference between the income and expenditure of the government.
For this, the government had started taking several steps gradually long back. Petrol Pump Dealers Association Punjab condemned the hike in petrol and diesel prices and said that the government has increased it for the third time in two years. From June 16 this year, by increasing the rates for domestic consumers, like petrol and diesel, electricity was also made costlier by 10 to 12 paise per unit.
The government is trying to bring the state's economy back on track through taxes and its own resources, but the situation is also worsening due to the funds withheld from Punjab by the Centre. According to economic experts, Punjab's economy is faltering due to the politics of freebies and tax evasion. The burden of these steps taken by the government to improve the state's economic health is directly falling on the public.
The increase in the price of petrol and diesel has a direct impact on the prices of goods and services. The total energy expenditure increases. This affects the economy and has a negative impact on demand. The cost of living increases and adversely affects people's budget.