Ahead of a revision in electricity tariffs in Delhi, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit reportedly argued on Wednesday for hiking tariffs for upper slabs of electricity consumption. She based her argument on what she perceived as Delhiites’ increasing salaries and ability to pay more for electricity. She also brought in the element of subsidy to reinforce her argument.
"We used to provide Rs 1,500 crore as power subsidy and we can't afford to continue it anymore," she is reported to have said.

Having weathered a recession, salary cuts and even job cuts in not-a-very-distant past, there are many in the salaried class who would take exception to Dikshit’s enthusiasm on their supposed ability to pay more. That is not to mention the general price rise that she herself cited as a premise of her pay-more argument and that has taken a heavy toll of the financial leeway of the salaried class. One would also be suspicious about the subsidy argument. Has this subsidy been targeted at those whom Dikshit wants to pay more for electricity? Aren’t they already paying the fair price for their consumption?

Also, there is a vital piece missing in her argument. She hasn’t talked about any possible improvement in service that a consumer should get for paying more. Will she promise uninterrupted supply of electricity, for example? Then why should we pay higher tariffs even if we fall in the higher consumption slabs?