GUWAHATI, Sept 10 � The North Eastern Small Scale Industries Association (NESSIA) has expressed grave concern over the proposal of the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd. (APDCL) for effecting another hike in power tariff for all categories of consumers to meet its additional revenue requirement for the financial year 2014-15.
State President of NESSIA Sailen Baruah said that NESSIA opposed such unwarranted policies and proposal of APDCL to hike power tariff, and urged the Assam Electricity Regulatory Commission to scrap the APDCL's proposal on the ground that recently a power tariff hike of Rs.0.36 paisa on FP Charges was effected by APDCL and "as such any further increase in power tariff will sound the death knell for the micro sector and small industries having connecting load up to 50 KVA in the State.
�In the domestic sector consumer having connection up to 5 KW, the company has proposed Rs 50 per KW per month as fixed charge on connected load against the existing Rs 30 per KW per month means a consumer of 5 KW connection will have to pay Rs 50 per month into 5 KW, i.e., Rs 250 per month,� it said.
Accordingly, NESSIA said, the hike for industries up to 50 KVA connection � from Rs 40 to 60 per KW/month � would adversely affect the functioning of small Industries. The industries with connected load up to 50 KVA are now paying Rs 2,000 per month on fixed charge. Now the same Industry will have to pay Rs 3,000.00 per month on fixed charge.
�On energy charge consumed, the industries will now have to pay Rs 6.25 per KW hour from the existing Rs 4.50 per KW hour with additional burden of Rs 1.75 per unit consumed by the industries which is on the higher side,� it added.
Reasoning that a majority of the industries in the State belongs to the small scale sector covering connected load up to the range 50 KVA, NESSIA said that as per available data, 19,625 consumers are in the small sector industry under APDCL.
�The activities of those industries in general are limited to day hours between 8 am to 5 pm and therefore utilize power from APDCL for only eight hours a day. Besides, due to peak- load hour restriction, holiday, weekly rest and other factors etc., small sector industries up to 50 KVA load utilize power for hardly 22 days a month on eight-hour basis but these industries are paying fixed charge on actual connected load without utilizing fully the power and therefore the fixed charge should be on the actual days of power supply to the industries,� NESSIA said.
A majority of the small sector industries of the State had vehemently opposed such a hike in fixed charge and sought revival. The opinion of the industry bodies is that unless the propose hike in fixed charge on connected load of power is not slashed, the next revision would affect the small industries badly.
�Power sector reforms have been undertaken by the Government of India to provide quality power to the consumers at an affordable price and not only to make change in the tariff order within the financial year, and therefore, quality supply is a must. In the last revision, though APDCL had said that steps had been taken to streamline and improve services to the consumers, in reality, consumers of SSI and domestic consumers were the worst sufferers,� it said.
NESSIA, however, lauded the APDCL�s effort towards reducing transmission and distribution loss (T&D) which has come down to 25 per cent from 37 per cent in the last ten years. �Efforts should be continued for further reduction so that it compares favourably to the all-India distribution loss of 13.5 per cent.�
NESSIA also thanked the State Government for its initiative in clearing government outstanding power dues which now stands at Rs 108 crore.
