Ludhiana: New power tariff order anti-people, say bizmen

LUDHIANA: The businessmen in Ludhiana city have slammed the new tariff order announced by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for year 2021-22.
The biggest point of contention for the industry is the hike in the fixed charges which are applicable on power connections regardless of the use of electricity.
As per the order issued on Friday by the PSERC, there has been increase of Rs 15 to Rs 20 per kilovolt-ampere (KVA) in fixed charges according to different category of the power connections.
The traders are also irked over the increase in tariffs in some categories of power connections, including domestic and industrial.
Dev Gupta, vice-president of All India Induction Furnace Association said, “The new tariff order of PSERC is a huge setback for the factories, especially those having large supply (LS) and PIU (power intensive unit) category connections. Furnace industry would turn out to be the worst sufferer of this development as fixed charges on power connections have been hiked. Besides, the rate of per unit of power has also been increase by 7 to 8 paisa.”
Narinder Bhamra, president of Fasteners Manufacturers Association of India said, “This is very disappointing tariff order. Despite of being aware of the on-ground situation being faced by us for the last one year and our constant requests to waive off fixed charges from industry, PSERC not only chose to ignore this, but gave us such a shock by increasing the fixed charges instead.”