UT administrator VP Singh Badnore on Wednesday gave formal nod to the recommendations of municipal corporation for levying 10 paise per unit as municipal cess on electricity at a meeting at UT Secretariat.
The cess will reflect in the power bills from next billing cycle, officials said.
The cess will earn civic body ₹15 crore annually that will be spent on improving streetlights across the city.
MC officials said the underground wiring of the electricity poles require improvement. The cess will be used for overall maintenance of over 40,000 streetlights to make the system robust and glitch-free.
The move will affect over 2.25 lakh consumers of all categories and power bills will go up
by 10-12% depending on consumption. For instance, usage of 1,000 units will invite a cess of ₹100.
In Chandigarh, domestic consumers are sent electricity bills every two months, while
bills for other categories of
consumers are generated monthly. Of the 2.25 lakh consumers, 1.75 lakh are residential users.
At present, UT consumers
are also charged electricity duty, which is 9 paise per unit for residential consumers and 11 paise per unit for other
categories.
At present, UT consumers
are also charged electricity duty, which is 9 paise per unit for residential consumers and 11 paise per unit for other
categories.
It was in July last year that the MC general house had approved the imposition of the cess on power bills. Decks were cleared after the MC asked the UT administration to notify the cess on power bills two months ago. Two objections were received from the public against the imposition of tax but they were rejected as they lacked merit.