#Faridabad Industry accuses government for anti-industrial policy.

Sanjay Chaturvedi

Faridabad, once known as an industrial town, is no more a leader in the industrial segment. Thanks to the unfriendly government policy of Haryana. While the neighbouring cities of the same state as well as of the other states such as Gurgaon, Bhiwadi and Noida kept progressing just because the states were doing their best to invite and promote industries to their place, Haryana was probably the only state that discouraged industrial growth leading to fast withdrawal of industrial activity from the district of Faridabad. Of the many contributory factors for the sharp downfall of the city, Power Tariff played a major role. The power tariff is said to be highest in Faridabad as compared to the neighbouring indusrial towns.

Recently some changes were announced in the power tariff in the month of August. It was quiet surprising that the media reports said that the tariff has been reduced. Whereas the fact was that the tariff remains unchanged. The tariff order of HERC dated 1st August 2016 was uploaded on the website of the department. The strongest association of the industries in Faridabad, Faridabad Industries Association (FIA), has been contesting the illogical and repeated hike in power tariffs for past many years. On the recent media reports that the tariff has been reduced, Executive Director FIA Col. S. Kapoor said that there is no such reduction in the tariff. Rather, there is a net increase of Rs.0.53 per unit for the customers procuring power by Open Access (OA) after considering all the provisions of the said notification. It was also clarified by Kapoor that wheeling charges has been reduced by Rs.0.14 from the existing rate of Rs.0.85, while the cross subsidy which earlier used to be Rs.0.93 has now been raised to Rs.1.57, raising the same by Rs.0.64.

It was also clarified by Col. Kapoor that the additional surcharge has been increased from the existing Rs.0.84 to Rs.0.87.

Hence, there is a net increase of Rs.0.53 on the existing rates. Adding more to the vows of the industry, the Fixed Charges for Arc Furnace/ Rolling Mill as well as LT industry has been reduced by Rs.10/kW these have been made effective from the date of issuance of tariff order i.e. 1ST August, 2016 and not 1st April as always done by the Commission. This perhaps is to avoid giving refund to legitimate nearly 17000 industrial consumers.
FIA also pointed out that in the tariff order, there is a revenue surplus of Rs. 954.18 crores but the Commission has not given due relief to the industry which is still paying the highest tariff in this part of the Country. It is to be noted here that the fuel surcharge levied by the government is actually a recovery of line losses that the department is unable to control. But in case of excess recovery the government is not honest enough to share the excess proceeds with its subscribers.

FIA, in a release, said “In our opinion the tariff order has been unfair once again to the industry. We strongly felt that after the introduction of UDAY scheme by the Central Government by which 75% of the debt of the Discoms was taken away, there was considerable scope to reduce the industrial tariff by at least Re. 1.00/unit”.
The association also raised a question that if the state claims to be producing surplus power, why they have to levy FSA.

FIA, said the release, as a responsible Association representing large segment of manufacturing industry, look up to the Hon’ble Industries Minister and the Hon’ble Chief Minister to look into the adverse impact of these orders on the industry.