Thiruvananthapuram:
In a huge relief to 6.9 million households in the lower slabs, the Kerala Government on Wednesday exempted them from the recent power tariff hike offsetting the revenue loss of the state electricity board by providing a grant to the tune of Rs 294.66 crore.
The concession was announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy after a state cabinet meet on Wednesday.
Domestic users consuming upto 120 units of power a month would benefit from the waiver. It would also be applicable to agricultural connections. They would also be exempted from the newly introduced fixed monthly charges.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) had last week announced a steep hike of about 30 per cent in power tariffs for all categories of consumers.
Mr Chandy said the power tariffs were increased in view of the grim financial crunch faced by the Electricity Board.
As per the statutes, government could not over-rule the SERC proposals without offsetting the loss of the power board.