Kolkata, February 10: The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal appears to have taken cue from the Delhi-ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as it has decided to waive electricity charges for consumers with quarterly consumption of upto 75 units. The announcement was made by the state government while presenting the Budget for financial year 2020-21. Populist Pension Roll-Outs in West Bengal Budget For Current Fiscal.

This is the last full-term Budget being presented by the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal, under it current tenure. The state would go to polls in the first-half of 2021. The roll-out of free electricity upto 75 units is similar to the waiver of electricity costs in Delhi for those consuming upto 200 units.

An announcement on these lines was made in Maharashtra, where state Minister Nitin Raut said the government is planning to waive charges for upto 100 units of consumption.

Update by PTI

The West Bengal Budget for 2020-21 rolled out other populist measures as well, including two pension schemes for the backward communities. Under the "Jai Johar" scheme, people above 60 years of age belonging to Scheduled Tribe community, who are not covered under any other pension scheme, will be given a monthly pension of Rs 1000.

A similar scheme, titled "Bandhu Prakalpa", will provide the same monetary grant to the same set of beneficiaries belonging to the Scheduled Caste community. Apart from the rollout of pensions, the Trinamool government also announced a waiver on agriculture income tax for the tea garden workers. The waiver would be applicable for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 10, 2020 04:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).