IConsumers upto 120 units exempted from surcharge

TPURAM: The state cabinet on Wednesday decided to exempt power consumers who use 120 units per month from 25 paise surcharge levied by the Kerala State Electricity Board from this month.

The government would pay the loss of Rs 54 crore the board would incur due to the decision, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently permitted the Board to impose a 25 paise surcharge on all power consumers to realise the additional expense incurred by the Board due to critical power situation in the state.

VS said the board was doing everything to avoid load shedding in the state and was purchasing power from outside the state.

As part of modernising the Treasury in the state, it has decided to introduce ATM and Core-Banking in treasury, he said.

On other cabinet decisions, VS said a welfare scheme for Land Document Writers would be implemented in the state. A person who crossed 65 years or doing the work of document writing for the past 25 years was eligible to become member of the scheme, he said.

Cabinet also decided to pay a solatium of Rs 500,000 to the family of forest guard Devadas, who was shot dead by a poacher in forest area at Kozhikode on April 4