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The trade and industry have opposed the increase in power tariff. They feel it has come on top of the nightmarish power outages in the state.
Despite assurances, unscheduled power cuts have become the order of the day and the Escoms need to further reduce AT&C (aggregate technical & commercial) losses, so that the tariffs are at an affordable level.
‘Double whammy’The tariff revision comes close on the heels of the government fixing the minimum wages in Karnataka at ₹10,000 a month severely impacting the business and industry.
The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI) said it has been demanding determination of tariff based on the cost of supply as per the Act 2003, whereas the present tariff does not reflect the actual cost of supply, which is mandated u/s 61G of the Electricity Act 2003.
SMEs worst-hitK Ravi, Senior Vice-President, FKCCI, said the introduction of morning peak hours is yet another blow to manufacturing industry since not all the industries work all the three shifts.
The Karnataka Small-Scale Industry Association (Kassia) said it had strongly argued against any power tariff hike as these annual hikes have made it very difficult for micro and small industries to operate in the state.
“The SMEs have been undergoing severe hardship on account of global recession, reduced sales and the recessionary conditions in the domestic market. Any further burden in terms of increased power tariffs will be counter-productive and lead to closure of many units and loss of jobs. As such, the share of industries in the total power consumption in the State from the grid has gone down steeply over the years,” said A Padmanabha, President of Kassia.
BCICThyagu Valliappa, President, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), said the tariff hike comes as a severe blow to consumers, especially the industrial sector as this will place an additional burden and impact the bottom-lines of corporates.
The Chamber had represented to the KERC that instead of opting for the tariff revision, the Escoms should reduce their T & D losses, review subsidies and also look at overhauling old transformers.
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