CICU slams power tariff hike retrospectively from April 2014

Ludhiana, September 3, 2014: In the special executive committee meeting of Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU), Ludhiana held yesterday, Upakr Singh General Secretary said that retrospective power tariff hike was unheard of in electricity circles and why consumers should pay for it retrospectively. This move is a clear signal that PSERC was not an autonomous body and did not take decisions on rational and commercial grounds. Differential hike on the principals of consume more to pay less is highly unjustified. It reveals that PSERC does not understand the basic economic criteria of essential and deficient commodities.
Interestingly, the subsidy bill has come down from Rs. 4778.13 crore in the last financial year to Rs. 4454.54 crore for the current fiscal where as the tariff is hiked by 7% for agricultural sector which is not charged from consumers as the Government pay for it to PSPCL in the shape of subsidy. This was the time when the industry was expecting help from the Government but we have been burdened with more tariff.  The Government should have provided subsidy to the industry instead of levying KVAH on industry.
Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab was urged to resolve  power tariff and VAT refund woes amicably, which will go a long way in taking our Industry into a new orbit of development and growth.
The meeting observed that inordinate delay in releasing VAT refund timely should be resolved by addressing the issues amicably. These issues are as under:
•         Input Tax credit is now restricted to two stages, which is not possible to comply with properly by the small scale units/traders.
•         The VAT Refund through RTGS is being paid after one month of the receipt of its voucher.
•         The information Centers at the Borders should be directed to expedite clearance of the Trucks / Goods and the Excise staff should not harass and delay the clearance of the merchandise, due to Slowdown/un-operation of Server. Locking of code for VAT dealers has become a common practice due to late submission of return. The unlocking of code is a cumbersome process, which takes 24 hours. This practice should be stopped.  
•         The newly introduced filing of VAT-15 in light of amended section 13(1) of Punjab Value Added Tax Act-2005 should be withdrawn immediately as it is not possible to comply with its provisions by small scale units. The earlier procedure should be re introduced.