Modi government to bring Smart electricity meters to your homes; Rs 10,000 device to be priced under Rs 1000

The days of costly electricity meters and inflated readings will soon be over. After the move to provide cheaper LED bulbs, the PM Modi led government is planning to bring down the cost of smart electricity meters for homes and offices. Power minister Piyush Goyal has said that the electricity meters which are priced at around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 will come down to under Rs 1,000. Goyal informed about the government’s move while speaking in the Lok Sabha. While answering a question on this, Goyal also referred to Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government’s initiative to purchase lakhs of new smart electricity meters. He said that when this happens there will no longer be fudged readings as well as it will help in nabbing those stealing electricity.

Goyal told the House while replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, that there will be a simplified smart electricity meter which would be tamper proof and would eliminate the role of the linesman, with the readings going directly into the computer. He said that the attempt is to bring down the price to Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 and finally below Rs 1000. He also talked about a similar initiative in Haryana. The Minister of Power said that the meters would be entirely Made in India, as the country is one of the best manufacturers of such devices in the world. He also said that there has been a discussion between the state governments and the centre regarding the implementation. Goyal also referred to how the government had managed to bring down the cost of LED bulbs from over Rs 300 to Rs 40.

Additionally, Goyal expressed confidence that the Modi government would be able to achieve total electrification even before the target of 2022 set by the Prime Minister himself. He asked the Indian citizens to download a Government of India’s mobile application to know the cheapest source of electricity available. This, he said, will lower the chances of any state government buying electricity at higher costs. Read more…