No subsidy yet, industry gets power shocker

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 16

Belying the declarations by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh about giving power to the industry at Rs 5 per unit, industrial units across the state have received bills in which they have been charged Rs 7.7-8.1 per unit.

Upset at the increase in power tariff instead of the promised subsidy, 40 industry associations of the state have joined hands and threatened to start a relay fast from December 21 in case the government does not roll back the hike and charges Rs 5 per unit, inclusive of all levies, said Mahinder Pal Gupta, president of the Industrial Furnace Association, Mandi Gobindgarh.

The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), while announcing the tariff order in October, had stated that power to the industry would be available at Rs 5 per unit from November 1. The government had made a commitment that it would bear the cost of subsidised power. However, with its coffers empty and no sign of getting additional revenue, the government has not yet issued a notification for the purpose.

Owners of industrial units are now being charged Rs 6.55-6.75 per unit as the basic tariff – up from Rs 6.22 per unit during 2016-17 – besides electricity duty, infrastructure duty and municipal cess, which together work out to be 20 per cent above the per-unit cost.

RS Sachdeva, a leading industrialist in Mohali who recently signed an MoU with the state government for expanding his gas unit, said his power bill had shot up from an average of Rs 11 lakh per month to Rs 13.5 lakh for November.

“I am thinking of closing down the existing unit and shifting it out of Punjab as the tariff is 70 per cent of my raw material cost. With a tariff of Rs 7.86 per unit (without including Time of Day tariff), my unit becomes unviable. Power in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is cheaper by Rs 1.75 per unit,” Sachdeva said.

With the government announcing a two-part tariff this year – a variable one on the units consumed and fixed charges at the rate of Rs 295 per kilowatt of the sanctioned load – the units that function for a lesser duration (say 12 hours a day) will get much higher power bills than those which operate round the clock. “The input cost of electricity would be much higher on lesser productivity as the fixed charges are very high. The power bill for my induction furnace increased to Rs 80 lakh per month from the average of Rs 70 lakh,” said KK Garg, a Ludhiana-based induction furnace owner and the president of the Induction Furnace Association of North India.

SC Ralhan, a hand-tool manufacturer in Ludhiana, said it was unfair to charge tariff with retrospective effect (April-October) at the hiked rates as the industry had not factored in the high power tariff while selling its goods. This should be rolled back, he demanded.