Unscheduled power cuts in the Delhi-National Capital Region have forced thousands of industrial units to curtail production by about 25 per cent in the last 30 days, industry chamber Assocham said on Tuesday.

“The loss of industrial production is likely to exceed 40-45 per cent in June and July,” it said after receiving feedback from its constituents in these regions.

Micro-, small- and medium enterprises (MSME) are the worst hit in places such as Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. About 6 million people are employed in about 3,50,000 MSMEs in Delhi-NCR, said D.S. Rawat, Secretary-General, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

As a result of the power shortage, many industrial units are forced to use diesel generators, which is working out to be a costly proposition, the chamber said. Moreover, many small units do not have generators at the factory premises as it makes the product price uncompetitively high.

“The misery for micro and small units is of production loss due to load-shedding which is not just in the man-hours and in terms of wages that are paid, but also the interest paid on raw materials, transport booked for the whole month, and losing customers due to delay in supply schedules,” a majority of respondents said.

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