Demands unmet, CCI tells hotels not to pay power bills

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 17

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Jammu, on Thursday accused the PDP-BJP government of backtracking from its Budget promises and advised hotels not to pay electricity bills to the Power Development Department in future.

The CCI has alleged the government had not fulfilled its promise in the Legislative Assembly that electricity tariff to be charged from hotels shall be similar to what was being billed from industries.

The representative body of traders has also submitted a memorandum to Finance Minister Altaf Bukhari and urged the government to implement the promises made in the annual Budget presented in February.

“We have advised hotel owners not to pay their power tariff as the government has failed to implement the Budget announcement to bring a change in the tariff plan for the hotel industry. A memorandum has been submitted to the government for consideration and we are waiting for a response,” said Rakesh Gupta, chamber president.

“The government should issue a Sadar-e-Riyasat Order (SRO) announcing industrial electricity tariff to be charged from hotels at an early date with retrospective effect from April 1, 2018,” said Rajesh Gupta, senior vice-president.