AGARTALA: Under pressure from all sides over months of inflated electricity bills, with farmers’ groups blockading highways, opposition parties demanding his resignation, coalition ally setting a deadline and own party’s former state president calling for him to step down, power minister found himself cornered on every side of the political spectrum.
To minimize the rising heat, Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Friday announced that the state government will bear the entire electricity tariff hike through a 100 percent subsidy, effective retrospectively from May.
The subsidy, cleared by the state cabinet a day earlier under Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, covers the additional tariff imposed under the Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission (TERC)’s 2026-27 order for all consumer categories except railway traction. Defence installations, railways, All India Radio and Doordarshan will get a 15 percent subsidy instead.
Addressing the press conference at state secretariat here in Agartala, Nath announced that, “The state government has decided to bear the entire burden of the increased tariff imposed on the public under the new 2026-27 tariff order approved by TERC, through a 100 percent subsidy and this has never been done before in Tripura’s history.”
Nath went further, staking his post on the claim. “If you can show me such a history, I will resign from my post,” he said.
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Consumers who have already paid bills at the hiked rate will get the excess adjusted across their September, October and November bills, through normal, additional and arrear subsidy components, Nath said. The government will spend an additional Rs 117.13 crore on top of the existing Rs 77.57 crore subsidy, taking the total power subsidy for the year to Rs 194.70 crore.
Nath said the government had not been “a silent spectator” to the crisis. “We saw a rickshaw driver standing at the counter with his electricity bill in hand, his eyes wet. We have not been able to forget that image,” he said.
The announcement follows a summer of highway blockades, office gheraos and a “Jail Bharo” protest that saw around 6,000 arrests in Agartala on August 10. TIPRA Motha had given the government 10 to 15 days from its August 11 deputation to deliver a solution, while BJP’s former state president Ronajoy Kumar Deb had said Nath “failed on every count” and should resign.
However, the announcement does not resolve a separate grievance among prepaid meter consumers, who say they are paying more for less electricity. A report on Thursday said domestic consumer Bimal Banik, a resident of Champamura, paid Rs 1,500 for a prepaid recharge but received only 33.4 units of electricity.
Similar cases have been reported from Salema village in Dhalai district and other parts of the state, with prepaid meter consumers saying their monthly bills, which stood below Rs 300 to Rs 400 before the meters were installed, have nearly doubled to around Rs 500 twice a month, even with no change in electricity usage or household equipment.
