Small, medium units decry discrimination

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, April 21

The Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations (FOPSIA) has charged the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) with discriminating against the small and medium sector in the new tariff order.

FOPSIA president Badish Jindal said as per the new tariff order, fixed charges of small power (SP) connections have been increased from Rs85/KW to Rs90/KW. Along with this, the consumption charges have gone up from Rs5.48 to Rs5.58 per KWH. Similarly, the fixed charges of medium supple (MS) connections have been raised from Rs100 to Rs115 per kVA, while the consumption charges have been increased from Rs5.60 to Rs5.72 per kVAh.

“On the other hand, the large supply (LS) consumers were being treated with kid gloves and in some cases (like arc furnace units), the minimum charges based on sanctioned load have been reduced,” said Jindal. Even the increase in fixed charges for LS consumers was marginally lower as compared to SP and MS units.

He said the net deficit (of PSPCL) was 2.17 per cent, whereas the fixed charges of small and medium units had been increased to 6 per cent (for small) and 15 per cent (for medium). In stark contrast, the fixed charges for LS consumers and arc furnace units were decreased from Rs295 to Rs250 per kVA and Rs295 to 280 per kVA, respectively.

Jindal said this showed the negative approach of the PSPCL authorities towards small and medium consumers as the number of such consumers being 94 per cent or around 1,05,500, whereas the number of large consumers (LS) was merely 6,933.

He said as per the power subsidy policy of the government, fixed charges were to be paid in full by the consumer, whereas the government would provide subsidy on consumption charges above Rs5. “In other words, it means that only fixed charges will affect the consumer and consumption charges will affect the government,” he said.

Alleging that the PSPCL was making attempts to please the large scale (LS) units at the cost of small consumers, he said the power utility had also imposed kVAH factor charges on NRS (non-residential supply) and SP consumers.

“Besides reduction in fixed charges, many more incentives have been given to large scale units such as 50 per cent fixed charge discount and Rs4.28 per unit on night charges,” he said.

Jindal said the real intentions of the PSPCL had been exposed and its bias against the small and medium sector was more than evident. He summed up by claiming that from out of Rs1,440 crore subsidy (for power to industry), the government was giving just about Rs200 crore to more than 1 lakh small and medium units, whereas the lion’s share of Rs1,240 crore has been allocated to merely some 7,000 large scale units.