PHDCCI hails no hike in power tyariff in Punjab

Chandigarh, may 11 (UNI) The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has appreciated Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for not hiking the in power tariff in the state for this financial year.

In a statement issued here today, PHDCCI Punjab Committee chairman Amarjit Goyal said that since Punjab was a land locked area, it was only low power tariff that might work in sustaining industrial growth and further investments in the state.

Moreover, the Power Intensive Units (PIUs) could only survive with rational power cost which makes it necessary to lower down the tariff by reducing the average power cost per unit, Mr Goyal said.

He pointed out that the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had proposed to the PSERC for a 17 per cent hike in tariff in its Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) for the financial year 2006-07, while the PHDCCI had strongly opposed the same through a petition filed before the PSERC.

About open access, Mr Goyal said that Indian Electricity Act 2003 lays stress on promotion of open access, co-generation and captive generation. The present policies of the Board were discouraging the consumers to opt for open access as, the billing charges and the losses being demanded were so prohibitive that open access was not viable.

PHDCCI Punjab Committee Co-Chairman R S Sachdeva said that the PSEB was not efficiently managing their finances. ''If managed properly, the PSEB can be in surplus without any power tariff hike.'' UNI PS RA RS2047