The Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Mr S.K. Modi, today said that the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) requires a subsidy of Rs 2,500 crore to bridge a “resource gap” in connection to the purchase of electricity, in the absence of which load shedding has to be carried out.

“The BSEB requires a subsidy of Rs 2,500 crore towards resource gap,” Mr Modi said here while inaugurating a workshop organised by FICCI on ‘Land and electricity being obstacles in the way of industrial development in Bihar’.

Mr Modi said the state government has already made Rs 1,080 crore available to BSEB to bridge the resource gap, but the board still requires a further subsidy of Rs 2,500 crore.

Stating that electricity was not a just a problem faced by Bihar, but other states as well, he said more than 90 per cent of the electricity boards in the country were incurring successive losses.

“The successive losses to the electricity boards in the country are pegged at more than Rs 1 lakh crore,” Mr Modi said.

He held NTPC responsible for a “fuel surcharge” imposed on customers in Bihar as the company was supplying electricity to the state at a higher rate than its peers because it was generated using imported coal.

Mr Modi said the state electricity board was incurring losses on account of the huge volume of electricity being purchased by it.

“To tide over the crisis, it has become necessary to hold load shedding and decrease the loss of electricity through transmission and distribution,” he said.

At the workshop, the Deputy Chief Minister also urged the Centre to increase the quota of electricity supply to the state.

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