• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

G.K. Nair

Kochi , Jan. 21

THOUGH the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has granted permission to the Aditya Birla Group's Indian Aluminium Industries (Indal) at nearby Eloor to draw power from the Power Trading Corporation (PTC), the company feels that the wheeling charges fixed by the commission is on the higher side.

The PTC has offered power at Rs 2.50 per unit and when the wheeling charges of Rs 0.42.50 per unit is added, the power cost per unit would go up to Rs 2.92.50 and the company feels that "anything beyond Rs 2.80 per unit would make the unit unviable", a management source told Business Line. The increase of Rs 0.13 per unit would incur the company a loss of around Rs 50 lakh per month. The management, however, is examining the issue and a final decision would emanate soon, he added.

On a request by Indal, after the KSEB had raised its power tariff to Rs 3.40 per unit, the PTC had agreed to supply power to the company at Rs 2.50 per unit. The company had then sought the permission of KSERC for drawing power from the PTC, which the commission had granted last week. Now, Indal would have to pay a wheeling charge of Rs 0.42.50 per unit to the KSEB.

Earlier, the company management had shut down the smelter unit from August 1 last and asked its around 360 employees to stay at home as the concession on power charges extended to the company by the State Government had expired early last year. It had also surrendered the power supply allocation of the unit to the KSEB.

Management sources said that the company was a major consumer of power with 20 million units per month. Prior to August 2001 the company was paying Rs 4.5 crore towards power charges per month and it had increased to 6.75 crore now following the two hikes in power tariff introduced by the board.

More Stories on : Sick Units | Power | Aluminium

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Ranbaxy forays into herbal medicine

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line