Agartala, April 3: The Tripura government will set aside Rs 40 crore every year as subsidy to cushion the power tariff hike implemented by the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited.

Facing a growing gap between income and expenditure, especially the steep hike in the price of natural gas effected by the Centre from September 2010, the corporation announced a 17 per cent hike in power tariff from April 1. But following a public outcry, the government, bound for Assembly polls in 10 months, stepped in to provide subsidy.

“We will spend Rs 40 crore annually on subsidy for power tariff and this will reduce the burden on the consumers to the tune of 5 to 6 per cent.

The subsidy will be available to all 10 categories of consumers,” said Manik Dey, minister for power in the Left Front cabinet.

Interacting with reporters along with the corporation’s CMD, Niladrisekhar Chakraborty, the minister said the government would have been “most happy” if the hike could have been avoided. He claimed that deprivation by the 13th Finance Commission had put the government in a “tight corner”.

“This is also the first time that we are including all 10 categories of consumers under the subsidy coverage. Except some minor readjustment in tariff as a result of steep hike in the price of natural gas, we have not raised tariff after 2006,” Dey said.

He said the corporation had initially proposed a steep hike of 48 per cent but after examining their plea, the Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission cleared a hike of 17 per cent, which in practical terms would have meant a hike of 69 paise per unit for all consumers.