PANAJI
The government has announced that it will completely subsidise LED bulbs being distributed to households in the State under the Central Government’s Ujala Scheme.
Announcing this, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said the government, instead of, offering the bulbs at ₹25 as instructed by the central government would offer them free.
“We did the math and realised that our projected savings on electricity would be to the tune of ₹16.59 crore per year (if everyone uses 9W LED bulbs in place of 60W filament bulbs) and our expenditure on distributing the bulbs would be ₹11.15 crore,” Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said while briefing media persons after a Cabinet meeting where the decision was taken.
The bulbs will be distributed at the local panchayat and municipalities at a prefixed date and time and three bulbs will be given per electricity connection on producing a copy of the electricity bill and an identity card.
“The original price of LED bulbs is in the range of ₹400 and above. However, with the central government making bulk purchases, they have been able to get them for the price of ₹76.68. They had directed us to offer the bulbs at ₹25 while bearing the cost of ₹51.68 subsidy,” Parsekar said adding that bulbs offered an 80% energy saving.
“The power saved could be redirected to facilitating the sanctioning of power to industries and the like and the country will be able to manage the power situation better,” Parsekar added.
The scheme will be called Jyotirmay Goa, the chief minister said. The Chief Minister was keen to stress that Goa’s domestic power tariffs were among the cheapest in the country far cheaper than places like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
