Making a major pre-poll promise, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced that all household consumers of electricity in the state will get free power up to 125 units from August 1, 2025.
The decision, made just months ahead of the proposed October–November state assembly polls, is a first-of-its-kind initiative in Bihar's power policy.
Sharing on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Kumar announced in Hindi, "We have always tried to supply electricity to each family at affordable prices. Now, from August 1, consumers will not be billed for up to 125 units of electricity," adding that the benefit will be seen in the July bill.
The Chief Minister emphasized that the scheme will help around 16.7 million families in Bihar. Apart from the free power proposal, he announced a larger initiative to encourage renewable energy, saying, "In the next three years, with the agreement of consumers, solar power systems will be set up either on rooftops or public places near their houses."
He also promised that ultra-poverty families, under the Kutir Jyoti program, would be given solar systems for free. For other families, the government would give considerable financial support to help adopt solar.
"This implies that families using up to 125 units will pay nothing for electricity, and at the same time, we are estimating that in three years' time, Bihar will produce up to 10,000 megawatts of solar power," Kumar said.
This comes in the wake of recent refutations by the state's finance department of news reports stating that the government would offer free electricity up to 100 units.
Today, Bihar's urban domestic consumers pay ₹7.42 per unit for the initial 100 units and ₹8.95 per unit for any usage over this. The rural consumers, instead, are charged a flat rate of ₹7.42 per unit. Neither of these charges has the state subsidy included, which is funded by the Bihar government with a ₹15,000 crore yearly budget.
In April of this year, the Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) announced an extra 25 paise rebate per unit for the state's almost six million smart prepaid meter consumers. This is a bonus over a previously announced 3% rebate for timely and online payment.
The ruling Janata Dal (United), whose head is Kumar, greeted the decision and characterized it as a landmark move. JD(U) national working president Sanjay Jha was fulsome in his praise of the Chief Minister's leadership, reminiscing on the turnabout in the state's electricity situation.
"When Nitish Kumar came to power for the first time, Bihar had produced only 700 MW of power. Villages had electricity for barely an hour and cities had around 7-8 hours of supply. Now that figure has gone up twelve times to 8,500 MW and 100% of Bihar's homes are electrified," said Jha.
The move is not only being seen as a welfare measure but also as a political game-changer ahead of the state elections, providing both economic succour to families and a new emphasis on clean energy adoption.
