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The Standing Council of Trade Union, the combine of trade unions in the industrial areas around Kochi, has called for an industrial hartal on August 10 in protest against the proposed power tariff hike and to press for a total rollback.
The trade union leaders, who participated in the council meeting here, have opposed the power tariff hike describing it as a ‘death knell’ for industries in the State. The announcement comes at a time when industrial recession had hit all areas of economic activity.
The leaders, cutting across party affiliations, pointed out that industrial units could not afford to the pay the revised rates.
‘Setback for investors’
The power tariff hike took the shine off the government’s efforts to woo investment through the Emerging Kerala summit, they said.
Though the Electricity Regulatory Commission has allowed open access, KSEB is unlikely to allow consumers to buy power of their choice, the leaders said.
Industries’ opposition
The Kerala State Small Industries Association has opposed the move to hike power tariffs, saying that it would affect the operations of small-scale industries in the State. The move to hike the power tariff will increase the cost of production and in turn affect viability of many units.
Mr Shaji Sebastian, secretary of the association, alleged that the Regulatory Commission has not applied its mind in hiking the tariff and they had just endorsed the proposal of KSEB in this regard. The association, he said, is of the view that the hike could have been effected in a phased manner as done in the previous years.
Instead of going for a 30-35 per cent hike, the Regulatory Commission should have ideally fixed it somewhere around 10-15 per cent, he said, adding that the association will not accept tariff hike with retrospective effect.
Tourism sector
The tourism industry, which has already been reeling under recessionary trends, also protested the hike.
Sources in the sector said this would result in increase in room rents and hotel service charges.
As the peak tourism season is around the corner, any hike in power tariff will cripple the sector, they said.
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