Patna: The state cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for giving Rs 4,137 crore as subsidy to the power distribution companies, which would be passed on to the consumers, in 2018-19.

The government has increased the subsidy amount by Rs 1,185 crore in comparison to the previous fiscal (2017-18), when Rs 2,952 crore subsidy had been given.

Urban domestic consumers will get average subsidy of Rs 1.83 per unit of electricity consumed. In the previous fiscal, they were getting average subsidy of Rs 1.48 per unit. In real terms, an urban domestic consumer will have to pay Rs 4.32 per unit for the first 100 units of power consumption and the rate will be Rs 5.12 per unit for 101 to 200 units of power. The rate will become Rs 5.97 per unit for 201 to 300 units of power, and for consumption above 300 units the rate after subsidy will be Rs 6.77 per unit.

In 2017-18, an urban consumer was paying Rs 4.27 per unit for the first 100 units, Rs 5.02 per unit for 101 to 200 units, Rs 5.77 per unit for 201 to 300 units and Rs 6.52 per unit above 300 units.

The Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) had announced the approved tariff rates without subsidy for 2018-19 on March 21 this year.

The state government has been more lenient in subsidy given to rural consumers of power. Domestic rural consumers will get Rs 3.45 per unit as subsidy, and non-domestic rural consumers will get a subsidy of Rs 2.92 per unit.

The subsidy amount is comparatively very less in case of non-domestic urban consumers, which are also called commercial connections; the government will give them subsidy of just 53 paise per unit.

The highest subsidy will be be given for agriculture and irrigation related works - Rs 5.11 per unit of power consumed - taking the average tariff for these works to Rs 1.50 per unit. Consumers will have to pay the subsidised tariff from April 18 onwards, said a senior power official.