Talking to reporters, Dighole said that considering the high cost of power generation at Rs 2.40 per unit, the government was toying with the idea of providing free power supply to small farmers, who were using agricultural pumps up to 3 HP. For other farmers, the government was considering the evolvement of a new concessional tariff structure, he said.

At present, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) charges a concessional annual tariff of Rs 500 for agricultural pumps up to 5 HP; Rs 750 for pumps between 5 and 10 HP; and Rs 1,000 for pumps above 10 HP. The bills are issued twice a year, in March and September, to coincide with the Rabi and the Kharif harvesting seasons.

Last year, Shiv Senasupremo Bal Thackeray's announcement of providing free power to farmers in the State came just before the September bills were issued. Majority of farmers ignored the bills expecting that they would be waived. There are about 21 lakh agricultural pumps in the State.

Dighole said that the MSEB has undertaken a special drive to recover bills last month and had even started publishing the names of the top ten defaulters of each taluka in local newspapers. He pointed out that the special drive had been suspended as the new government led by Narayan Rane had decided against disconnecting power supply of farmers for non-payment of bills till the issue of free power was resolved. Dighole said that a meeting of the MSEB board of directors was scheduled on February 16, to discuss among other things, the issue of supplying free power to farmers.