The steep hike in the rates of "minimum monthly charges" on the connected load of industry in Haryana may well prove the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. No other state has ever imposed such a prohibitive charge. All chambers and associations of the state's trade and industry have lodged a strong protest against the hike seeking the intervention of chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry.The Gurgaon Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI), Gurgaon Industrial Association (GIA), Udyog Vihar Industrial Association, Gurgaon SS Industrial Association, Faridabad Industries Association, Faridabad Manufacturers' Association, Faridabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Faridabad Small-scale Industries Association have sent protest letters to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HREC) chief, V S Ailawadi, to immediately withdraw the hike which is three to four times the rates till December-end last.
According to revised rules issued by the Haryana Vidyut Nigam (HVPN), dated January 16, the minimum monthly charge is effective from January 1, 2001. For instance, if the sanctioned/connected load of a party is 50 kw, it had to pay Rs 50 per kw as the minimum charge till December-end last. From January 1, 2001, this charge has been hiked to Rs 200 per kw.
GCCI president Sunil Sabharwal told The Financial Express that "those who actually require only 50 kw have actually got 60 kw or more sanctioned because the voltage normally doesn't touch 44 OKVA-the minimum required to operate the motors. Naturally, these units would be required to pay a monthly charge for 15 kw idle capacity only because the HVPN does not supply the full voltage required." Further, as power trips dozens of times in a day, almost every factory in Gurgaon and elsewhere has been forced to install heavy gensets, he added.
GIA president Jagan Mangla blamed the HERC for having agreed to HVPN's request for a steep hike in minimum charges, which have affected domestic, agricultural and the SSI sectors as well. He flayed HVPN's logic of slapping high charges without ensuring uninterrupted power supply.
The chairman of the Haryana Committee of the PHD Chamber PK Jain said he had received representations from auto-parts/automobile units saying that the nature of the industry being as it is, they could not consume more than 65 per cent of the sanctioned load. Industries that recently got their excess load regularised availing of HVPN's `voluntary disclosure scheme', too, are repenting.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
