Punjab withdraws power tariff hike

Giving in to the demands of its alliance partner BJP, the Punjab Government today said it would roll back the 12 per cent hike in power tariff imposed last year.

Giving in to the demands of its alliance partner BJP, the Punjab Government today said it would roll back the 12 per cent hike in power tariff imposed last year.

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The BJP had stepped up pressure on SAD to implement the promise made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal last year to withdraw the hike imposed with effect from last April by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), an official release said here.

Three days back Badal had dismissed reports of differences with BJP as "speculative" even as a meeting of saffron party's MLAs and party's core group expressed concern over the delay in fulfilling the promise.

"To provide relief to the common man in view of the impact of the general economic slow down in the country, the government today decided to set off the enhanced portion of power tariff in the domestic, the commercial and the industrial sectors in the state," the release said.