• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books

Stocks

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

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

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

Our Bureau

Chennai, Dec. 29 Industries in Tamil Nadu are to adopt a five-day week from January 1 following a two-day power cut to be implemented by the State Government from the new year.

However, industry representatives say the move has caught them by surprise as they feel that this would only help a section of the industry while most others, including continuous process industries, the textile sector, IT and those with captive power generation facilities would be affected.

Following an interaction with industry representatives today, the Electricity Minister, Mr Arcot N. Veeraswami, said the State Government had given the industry two options – a lesser duration of power cut daily or five days of uninterrupted supply a week with two days total power cut, and faced with lower demand, the industry had chosen the second option.

Reacting to the announcement, Mr Manikam Ramaswami, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry - Tamil Nadu, said the announcement has caught the industry by surprise. The CII and SIMA (The Southern India Mills Association) representatives had sought time to consult with members.

Except for a section of the recession-hit industry, which was anyway working for less than five days a week, industry feels that less power cut daily was a better option. The State Government had said that it was willing to bring down the prevailing 40 per cent power cut for HT (high tension) connection to 30 per cent. This would have been a better option for most as the industry will manage to cope with captive power supply.

The industry has been demanding that all sections of the consumers bear the shortage, but the Government is protecting the residential segment and exempting sections of the industry from the power cut. This only aggravated the shortage faced by the rest of the industry, he said.

A statement from the CII quoting Mr Ramaswami said that at a meeting with industry associations, the Electricity Minister had conveyed that the State Government proposes to reduce the 40 per cent power cut even as it retains the peak hour stoppage and two hours load shedding. The CII is happy to note that there is more power available for industry.

HT industry wants reduced power cut. Power holiday for HT will be counterproductive as many units have bought power from IPPs (independent power producers) and many of them have partial captive power plants too. These will become idle during days when full power is available and will be insufficient to run during power holidays. TNEB will be the only beneficiary as it will get more maximum demand charges.

But the LT industry prefers power holiday to power cut.

The CII has urged the Government to either extend diesel subsidy for industry using captive power or any other scheme that the Government sees as feasible to use the idle capacity available to bridge the shortage. The industry would like to reiterate a more equal exemption-free distribution of power to all industry.

More Stories on : Power | Policy | Tamil Nadu

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

Copyright © 2008, 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