CICU strongly pleads for not allowing any increase in power tariff

Ludhiana, February 3, 2014: During the Public Hearing held today at Ludhiana, Avtar Singh, President and Upkar Singh, General Secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU); vehemently pleaded before Romila Dubey, Chairman, Punjab Electricity Regularity Commission, for not allowing any increase in Power Tariff.
They sought to monitor the reimbursement of subsidy to the PSPCL by State Government judiciously, in order to ensure that the burden of subsidy is not wrongfully passed on to the non-deserving categories of consumers.  They added there is enough scope of saving in expenditure of PSPCL as under: i) Cost of coal can be reduced easily by about 10% by limiting the transit losses to less than 0.5%, introducing stringent quality checks during purchase of coal for increasing the calorific value at competitive rates and operating the Thermal Stations at optimum loads and increasing the Thermal efficiency by fine-tuning the entire auxiliary equipments; ii) The average fuel cost which was Rs. 4.58/Unit in 2013-14, has been projected as Rs.4.77/Unit during the 2014-15.  This extra high cost, is basically purchased for subsidised Agriculture Sector, but is being passed on to Industrial Sector which is already becoming sick day-by-day due to increase in cost of energy; iii) The purchase of Power from external source is increasing every year in quantity and amount which is leading escalation in input cost of energy prices.  PSPCL should make efforts to arrange more power from Central Pool or other cheaper sources rather than procuring from open market; iv) The loan amount of PSPCL is increasing every year i.e. 13002.52 crores in 2010-11, Rs.16898.18 crores in 2011-12, 17857.01 crores in 2012-13 and 20562 in 2013-14 crores and 22815.93 in  2014-15.  Therefore, interest amount on loan is increasing drastically from Rs.674.03 crores in 2010-11, Rs.2508.50 crores in 2013-14 and Rs.2763.30 crores in 2014-15; v) Subsidy bill is also increasing every year from Rs.4411.48 crores in 2011-12, Rs.5743.53 in 2012-13, Rs.5662.16 in 2013-14 and Rs.6961.00 crores in 2014-15; vi) The impact of interest on loans and the subsidy should be worked out clearly and must be paid by Punjab Government and no part of these financial burdens should be passed on to other categories of consumers through cross-subsidies; vii) Though the number of employees is reducing every year due to retirements, but the employees cost is showing increase in trend.  During 2013-14 employee costs was Rs.4306.93 crores against the revenue receipt of about Rs.21133.89 crores that 20.03% of total revenue.  The projected employee cost of 2014-15 is Rs.5350.89 crores i.e. an increase 19.50% over the previous year which is very high and needs immediate control for reduction; viii)  The amount of subsidy not being paid by the Punjab Government should be shown under bad-debits payable by State Government or the specific consumers being benefitted by this subsidy; ix)  The PSPCL has not specified the cost of Free Power supply to its Employees which is substantially a high burden taking into account 44707 regular employees; x)  Controlling of thefts of Power is the most effective measure to reduce load on feeders and reduction in T&D Loss.  PSPCL has not provided the details of theft penalty imposed/realized and number of FIRs registered/conviction obtained.
They also said on the one hand PSPCL is claiming the Power Surplus Scenario in the coming financial year, on the other hand; it is demanding Power Tariff revision from the regulator which is self-contradictory as PSPCL will be procuring less power from outside sources. They added the leading States of India are going for Green Energy whereas Punjab is still depending upon old technology i.e. Thermal Power Production Trend.
Further they said the state government is providing benefits for Investment in Punjab, but no relief is being given to existing Industrial Sector, adding PSPCL is demanding higher tariff from Industrial Consumers, but nothing is being provided to ensure reliability of supply to Industry.
Hiking Power Tariff every year to give subsidised electricity to Agriculture Sector at the cost of Industrial Consumers is not justified as MSME’s are also reeling under same adverse economy scenario, they pointed out.  
Both of them have requested the Chairman, P.E.R.C. to lay more emphasis on reducing distribution and transmission losses, transit losses of coal, menace of power theft and enhancing efficiency of workers by pruning access staff. // ludhiana news online, ludhiana news in English, ludhiana news, ludhiana current news, ludhiana news live, Ludhiana breaking news, Ludhiana headlines, Ludhiana latest news, punjab news, india news, punjab news live, punjab news online, punjab news, punjab news headlines, punjab breaking news, india news, punjab news,

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