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Our Infrastructure Bureau
Mumbai, Oct 3: The industry and the trading community have reacted sharply against move to waive power tariff to farmers as directed by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray to the Maharashtra government. They have asked the state government to think twice before resorting to such an exercise.
Confederation of India Industry (CII) said that the idea of waiver does not augur well for the economy of the state. The CII has been repeatedly stating that Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) must improve its efficiency and subsidisation should be done through budgetary allocation. CII secretary of the western region Jayant Bhuyan said that 20 per cent of MSEB's consumers accounts for 70 per cent of its revenue and it was this section of consumers which was repeatedly being pressed with increased tariff in a bid to enhance MSEB's revenue. MSEB was not efficiently working and it needs to take corrective steps to reduce thefts and line losses.
Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) president YP Trivedi said that thewrite-off was not proper as it will further ail MSEB. MSEB should first try to recover the long-pending arrears and only in exceptional cases should it resort to this extreme remedy of waiver, he said. Trivedi said that the write-off will put an additional burden on the industrial and commercial consumers and make the power supplied to these consumers costlier. "The power hike, if done, will be one of the highest in the country as a result of which the industry will move out of Maharashtra,'' he said.
Trivedi said that the only remedy was to privatise at least the transmission to avoid the losses and theft of electricity. All India Association of Industries (AIAI) president Vijay Kalantri said waiver of power bills to farmers as well as writing off their debts will further add to the losses of state and the central government which already suffer from financial crunch for development profits. He added in view of privatisation in the power sector and to further encourage them, such waiver will work againstthis programme.
"Any further reduction in power tariff to the farmer will add to the burden on the industry and the commercial organisation which will make them incompetitive in the international world as our power cost is higher than other countries," Kalantri said. The recent tariff hike of 11.2 per cent and the earlier hike by the state government clearly shows the subsidies have compelled them to do this, as well as the recent cancellation of World Bank loans is also because of this very reason. He said the government should reduce such power subsidies and cut down on transmission losses rather than adopting a soft option to increase power tariff.
Small Scale Industries Association president Madhu Khambete has strongly opposed the proposed waiver. He said the association, which has challenged the power tariff hike made effective in 1996 in the Thane district court, will take up the issue on the streets. Khambete said that of the total five lakh small-scale units in the state, the majority of them havebeen hit severely due to recession while at least 40 per cent have been working under capacity. The hike will compel closedown of a large number of such units, he added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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