The formula arrived at after a brief pre-cabinet meeting between Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde was later approved by the State Cabinet.

The current rate for agriculture pumps of up to five horse power (HP) is Rs 500. Now, as per the revised structure, charges for pumps of up to 3 HP will be Rs 250, while for 3-5 HP pumps, the rate will be Rs 400. For a 5-7.5 HP pump, the new rate will be Rs 600 as against the existing charge of Rs 750, while for pumps of 7.5 HP and above, it will be Rs 700 against the previous Rs 750.

For pumps of above 10 HP, the charges will be Rs 1000.

``This will put an additional burden of Rs 181 crore on the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB),'' Rane said.

The chief minister said consumers who paid up 50 per cent of the arrears before May 31,1999 would be exempted from paying the rest. ``As per the official records of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, it is owed Rs 650 crore from 11 lakh of the 22 lakh farmers,'' Rane said.

Rane said Sena chief Bal Thackeray had empowered him and Munde to take a final decision on providing power at concessional rates. ``This was the first phase,'' he said.

``In the second phase, we are considering providing free power to the farmers.''

The agreement is seen as yet another victory for the BJP with the Sena veering around to its ally's counter-proposal of electricity to farmers at concessional rates instead of the free power mooted by Thackeray.

Thackeray's directive to former chief minister Manohar Joshi in October last year was strongly opposed by Munde -- who also holds the Energy portfolio -- on the ground that it would worsen the MSEB's already precarious financial position. He had said he was prepared to implement the directive if the state government released a proportionate budgetary grant tothe Board.