GCCI SPARKS - WITH RESENTMENT
* Tariff hike like a double blow to the industry which is just picking up in the State
* The fixed charges have gone up from ₹12 per unit to ₹20 per unit which is a nearly 70% hike
* The tariff itself has gone up by 35% from ₹1.30 per unit to ₹1.60 per unit for agriculture allied industries
* One can understand a hike of 10-12% which would be understandable considering inflation. This is simply not affordable
* The hike especially painful as allied agriculture sector is being specially promoted by the government
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PANAJI: The agriculture sector is livid, while the industries in the state have expressed their disappointment with the recent tariff hike notified by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) order passed on April 18.
Speaking to The Goan, Joseph D’Souza member of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and head of the GCCI’s food processing wing said that the power tariff hike was like a double blow to the industry which is just picking up in the State.
“The fixed charges have gone up from ₹12 per unit to ₹20 per unit which is a nearly 70% hike. The tariff itself has gone up by 35% from ₹1.30 per unit to ₹1.60 per unit for agriculture allied industries. One can understand a hike of 10-12% which would be understandable considering inflation. This is simply not affordable,” D’Souza said.
He said that the hike was especially painful because the allied agriculture sector which includes dairy, poultry, hatcheries, food processing, mushroom cultivation, polyhouses, or, in short, everything other than irrigation pumps is being specially promoted by the government in a bid to give a boost to the sector.
“When we met the chief minister about this hike, he too was shocked and said that he would take up the matter. Expressing his opinion on the hike he had said that the hike was ‘counterproductive’ to the aims of the government. Now that it has come through, we are shocked,” he said.
Several representatives of the agriculture allied industry, had turned up for the JERC hearing to petition against the electricity department’s move to classify the their industries as a separate category and impose a higher power tariff.
“One problem that this creates is that for those, like me, who have both plain water pumps for their fields, coconuts and fodder grass, as well as an allied industry like that of dairy there will have to be a separate meter and a separate connection for the water pump which has a lower tariff and another for the rest of the ‘allied’ activity on the land. This is nothing but added hassle not just for me and thousands of others like me, but it also will mean more work for the electricity department, which will have to maintain two bills and separate accounting all of which is a hidden cost,” D’Souza said.
The industry fears that it will badly affect the profitability of the industry as well as work against the government’s moves to specifically promote this sector in the state in view of the mining slowdown.
The High Tension Industrial Sector too has complained about the hike saying that despite the hikes, there is no improvement in the quality of transmission by the department.
“For a long time now we have been complaining about the quality of transmission and calling for its improvement. Nothing has been done in this regard, despite the government imposing a specific infrastructure tax for it,” Damodar Kochkar the president of the Verna Industrial Estate Industries Association told The Goan.
He said that the the hike by the department is “not justified”. “The department has not justified their hike or its quantum. They also need to explain their transmission losses which lie between 6-10% which would make the hike unnecessary,” Kochkar said.
