In a move to woo Punjab farmers ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, the state government has extended the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) for regularisation of excess load on agricultural tubewell connections by another 45 days — till December 29 — by slashing service connection charges from Rs 6,572 to Rs 2,500 per BHP. The security deposit has also been reduced from the earlier Rs 400 to Rs 200 per BHP. Moreover, there will be no penalty or load surcharge on voluntarily declared or inspection-detected excess load.The move comes a day after the government waved off penalties of 25 lakh electricity consumers, worth nearly Rs 518 crores.Punjab Power Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond said that the scheme aims to provide farmers a simple and affordable opportunity to regularise the unauthorised excess load on their agricultural tubewells as per the prescribed rules.He further said that the scheme was initially implemented for 45 days, from October 1 to November 14, but has now been extended by another 45 days.Under the extended scheme, eligible agricultural tubewell consumers can get their unauthorised excess load regularised till December 29.Sond said the main feature of the scheme is to provide financial relief to farmers.He added that another major relief has been given to farmers under this scheme. No penalty or load surcharge will be imposed on unauthorised excess load, whether voluntarily declared by farmers, or detected during inspections, throughout the validity of the scheme. This will enable farmers to regularise the load on their tubewells without paying any additional penalty.The Power Minister urged farmers to make maximum use of this 45-day extension period.