An infographic with the title, ‘Electricity
Charges for Religious Places in Tamil Nadu’,
is
being shared widely on social media platforms
with the claim that while temples are
charged Rs 8 per unit, mosques and churches
are only charged at Rs 2.85 per unit in
the state. We looked for information on the
website of the Tamil Nadu Electricity
Regulatory Commission, or TNERC. There, we
found an order released for the financial
year 2019-20. In it, there is a mention of
‘Actual Places of Public Worship’ but
there are
no separate mentions of different religious
places. For every two months, places of
public worship are charged a fixed amount
of Rs 120 and for every unit till 120 units,
they are charged Rs 2.85 per unit. Here, the
actual tariff is Rs 5.75 per unit and the
government subsidy is Rs 2.90 per unit, so
once the subsidy is reduced, the final
amount comes to Rs 2.85 per unit. For electricity
consumption beyond 120 units, the
tariff is Rs 5.75 per unit, which means there
is no subsidy. Details regarding the total
subsidy can be seen in the TNERC order. The
Commission has estimated that the
subsidy offered to places of public worship
for 2019-20 is around Rs 16.30 crore. Also,
the details given here are related to low-tension
supply. The tariffs change when the
places of public worship have high-tension
supply. These rates can also be seen on the
website of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation. Also, in 2006, a
request was made to give concessions to some
temples and as a result, an order was
passed to give concessions to all places of
worship based on their income. When we at
Factly contacted the Tamil Nadu electricity
department about this, they clarified that
the
tariff is not different for different places
of worship. They confirmed that the viral
message is wrong, so we now know that this
post with an infographic claiming different
rates for different places of worship in Tamil
Nadu is fake.
