By Shri Ashok Kumar, Joint Secretary, Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC)
Lately the central government and the media controlled by big corporates has been repeatedly objecting to the subsidy on electricity. They call it as the main cause of problems of the power sector. The Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 draft wants electricity rates to be ‘cost-reflective’ which means without any subsidy.
The largest beneficiary of subsidised electricity in our country today are the crores of farmers. They use it to run pumps for irrigating their farms. Subsidised electricity to farmers ultimately leads to lower price of food which benefits everybody in the country.
In the state of Maharashtra, the expenditure on providing subsidised electricity is around Rs. 8,500 crores annually, which is being objected to.
We cannot forget that all subsidies come from the money of the people themselves, that the government collects through indirect and direct taxes! So, what right do the government and corporate media have to decry those?
However, offering incentives of the value of Rs. 30,000 to 35, 000 crore to Vedanta-Foxconn chip project by the Maharashtra government for locating the project in the state is justified by those objecting to the subsidised electricity for farmers. Over and above this, the Central Government is offering huge incentives of 50% of project cost for locating such projects in India. In case of the Vedanta-Foxconn project, the incentive by the central government could be as much as $ 10 billion, i.e., Rs 80,000 crore!!
Such incentives are justified by claiming that such a project would create a large number of jobs for people of the state.
It is well known that chip producing plants are highly robotized and automated and employ very few highly skilled people. So, the claim of large jobs is only to win the support of people for such huge incentives.
It again shows that the present system works for enriching big corporates and their big capitalist owners so any amount of loot of public money in the name of incentives to them is justified while any help to workers and farmers by way of subsidy is objected to.
Workers and farmers have to come together to oppose the system and measures which do not work for their benefit. The Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 is yet another measure to enrich big corporates and against interests of people. It must be opposed and stopped.