Providing 300 units of free electricity may cost Gujarat Rs 8,700 cr a year

To make AAP's promise work, state would require to increase revenues and cut revenue expenditure under other heads

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently criticised those who distribute “free revadis” (freebies) and termed this harmful for the country’s development. However, this has not deterred the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal from promising up to 300 units of free power to each household in Gujarat, where Assembly elections are scheduled for later this year.

Theoretically, it is easier for Gujarat to provide such a subsidy in comparison to, say, Punjab, where the AAP is heading the government, because the public finances of the western state are in much better shape than the north Indian state.

The Gujarat