New Tariff Order Does Not Augur Well With Industrial Consumers At Least-By P D Sharma
Author. *The Author is President, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) Ludhiana: Supply of power and cost of power are matters of grate worry for industrial consumers in particular. Year after year industry has been expecting some...
*The Author is President, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab)
Ludhiana: Supply of power and cost of power are matters of grate worry for industrial consumers in particular. Year after year industry has been expecting some relief but instead it got heavier burden. On the other hand the competition with respect to the cost of manufactured products in Punjab is becoming incompetitive.
Punjab State Regulatory Commission (PSRC) in its new order today has further increase the worries of industrial units. It has reduced night rebate to Rs. 01 from the normal rebate of Rs. 2 in some other states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra etc.
PSPCL and Punjab government have been assuring the industry that after the commissioning of Rajpura and Talwandi Sabo Plants tariff would be reduced. It has not happened. Industry had also been assured that there will be no peak load hours after the commissioning of the new plants. This hope is also belied.
Another major factor of concern to industry is the frequent unscheduled power cuts. There are many feeders in Focal Point and Industrial Areas where feeders need major restructuring to reduced unscheduled power cuts. This is not been done. As a result industrial units face as many as two to three hours average unscheduled power cuts in a day. It is adding to the higher cost of power still higher.
Punjab is the only state in the country which is burdening the power tariff with high rates of taxes like octroi on power and electricity duty on power. There is no state in the country which levies octroi on power, there may be one or two exceptions.
The new tariff order does not augur well with the industrial consumers at least.
Date:
Tuesday, May 5, 2015