Industrialists in Jammu decry power tariff hike
There seems to be variance in the government claims of providing cheaper power to the industrial sector in Jammu and Kashmir as compared to neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
As per the revised power tariff ordered by Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh, the tariff for industrial sector has been fixed at around Rs.5.50 kYAh, however it was found that neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Punjab were offering power to industrial sector at Rs.5 per kVAh. In Punjab the tariff for the industrial sector is at Rs.6.30 per kVAh, while under invest Punjab initiative, the new industries are being provided power at Rs.5 per kVAh.
The government on the other day has shared that the rates for industrial categories vary from a minimum of Rs.4.70 to a maximum of Rs.7.75 per kVAh in the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. In order to ensure incentivize industrial development, the price of the highest rate slab of industrial supply has been kept less than the lowest rate slab in any neighboring state.
Since the announcement of hike in power tariff, the industrialists and trade bodies have decried the government decision that it will lead existing units on the verge of closure and discourage the upcoming ventures.
President Bari Brahmana Industries Association, Lalit Mahajan expressed concern that hike in power tariff has resulted in great resentment amongst the working Industrial Units as we fear that it is not possible for the Unit Holders to bear the additional production cost resulting clouser of Units in near future and lakhs of Industrial Workers may lost their livelihood.
JERC by increasing the Power Tariff in spite of fact that Industry Consumes 30% of power and contributes 70% of total revenue generation of PDD, Industry is 100% metered and the T&D Losses are much less than the National Average whereas the Power Development Department has failed to control the Transmission Losses resulting huge financial losses to the Government.
PDD Department also failed to implement the directives for the 100% metering as Non Metering is the major factor of Power Theft and Transmission Losses. Further, no action has been taken by the Power Development Department to regularize the Unmetered Power Supply to different Consumers of JKUT resulting in heavy losses to State exchequer and the Department has passed the burden to the Genuine Industrial Sector who is paying the amount of Power dues on regular basis.
President Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jammu Arun Gupta termed the power tariff hike detrimental for existing industrial units as well as upcoming investors.
Gupta said that the Power Department has miserably failed to reduce the transmission losses and continuously hiking the power tariff, resulting in uncertainty in the mind of the existing industrial units as well as prospective investors who are in the process of setting up new units.
“The government should take preventive measures to plug the Loopholes in the System and try to control Transmission Losses in the areas other than the Industrial Areas and also improve the Infrastructure to control the Transmission Losses,” he added.
Gupta suggested that the Industrial, commercial and essential feeders should be separated to know about the actual losses.
“The industrial sector of J&K faced the worst in the last couple of years due to Covid, while few of them shut down operations after incurring losses. The government should have constituted a committee for finding out the problems faced by the public. The industrial sector which is already in doldrums has been subjected to over 17% power tariff hike”.
Gupta added, “We were told that there were heavy transmission losses. After that we suggested bifurcating the industrial as well as domestic feeder to find out T&D losses. Industry has been always a good pay master and has been targeted. The revenue collection from Jammu region has been around 67% while Kashmir is 48%. The authorities should take steps to increase the revenue collection of Kashmir to 65% and Jammu to over 80% to overcome the revenue shortfall”.
I fear that new players intending to invest in Jammu will have second thought, when they will find that power tariff in J&K is higher than the neighboring state. Government should rethink this decision and should not put that much burden on the industrial sector”, he demanded.
Industrialist Vijay Aggarwal also opposed the recent power tariff hike for the industrial sector.
“The power tariff hike on the industrial sector has come as a shock for us. The government should have given us time and held deliberations with us before going for such hike”, he said and added the recent power tariff hike will discourage the industries planning to invest in Jammu. The tariff hike to Rs.4.20 per unit from Rs.3.80, will end the viability of any new industry and no will come to fag end of the country without any incentive”, he said.
