Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 1: Federation of Industries (FOIJ) has requested the Lt Governor of J&K UT, Manoj Sinha to exempt industrial sector from the proposed power tariff hike.
An emergency meeting of the Federation was held here today under the chairmanship of Rajesh Jain, in which the members present on the occasion, expressed grave concern over the proposed steep hike in the power tariff to the tune of about 70 % besides fixed charges to the tune of 50 %. It is strange to observe that Government press release has depicted only 12 to 17 % hike in power tariff, misleading general public, they regretted.
The FOIJ members pointed out that such a massive hike of 70 % in the power sector in one go has never been witnessed anywhere in the country. It appears that Industry promotion has not been the priority of the Government. It will not be out of contest to mention here that the industry is the highest and the best paymaster among all the consumers. The proposed Power hike if approved shall prove the last nail in the coffin of already dying industry in the Jammu and Kashmir, they maintained.
The members strongly condemned the move of the proposed increase in the power tariff and substantial increase in the fixed demand charges by the JPDCL for the financial year 2022-23 which is unjustified as the Department has failed to reduce the AT&C losses which is projected @ 43.77 % for the FY 2022-23 whereas, the national average of AT&C losses is approx 20%, but the PDD has failed to reduce these losses which has been projected as 50-52 % in the petition, the members added.
The JPDCL in its proposal has justified the hike in power tariff by comparing it with that of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi which are highly industrially developed and centrally located states. When the tariff of J&K UT is compared with that of Himachal and Uttrakhand, J&K tariff is much higher whereas in addition to hill state, J&K is land locked having geographical disadvantages along with militancy infested region.
On one hand Lt Governor and his team is trying to woo the outside investors while on the other, they are proposing very exorbitant power tariff. The prospective investors are all set to stay away after such power hike is allowed. The Industrial sector after 2019 developments and Covid situation has already suffered a lot but now it will receive yet another major jolt. The FOIJ sought immediate attention of the Lt Governor into this urgent matter.
Prominent among those present in the meeting included Lalit Mahajan, Jitender Aul, Deepak Dhawan, Viraaj Malhotra and Virendra Jain.
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