Ludhiana, July 28 (KNN) With the Assembly polls just few months away, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has kept the tariff unchanged for domestic consumers and has marginally slashed it for industrial users.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the state are happy with the move but have said that the marginal cut would not solve their issues.

This is for the second consecutive year that there has been no hike in power tariff in Punjab. The rates for industrial consumers have been slashed from 36 paisa to 11 paisa. The three categories in industrial sector, namely small power (SP), medium supply (MS) and large supply (LS) account for 1.3 lakh consumers, and the rates for the said categories have been slashed to 38 paisa, 36 paisa and 11 paisa, respectively.

The new tariff will be effective from August 1.

Talking to KNN, the President of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Ludhiana, P D Sharma said that this marginal change in electricity tariff is not going to solve the problems of the industries in Punjab.

He said, “Reserving cheap electricity for the new industries is not a good move and the subsidy which is being given for the new industries will be taken from us only.”

“Now we have to close our old unit to set up a new one in order to get the subsidy,” he added.

ACCI, calling the move political, said that the move aims to woo the voters ahead of the elections.

PSERC has offered a lower base tariff of Rs 4.99 per unit to large industrial units, a move seen aimed at luring back bulk power consumers at a time when availability of cheap power has increased power purchase from the open market.

While a 6% relief in tariffs has been extended to small and medium industrial units, it is less than 2% for large industrial units.

Rajiv Jain, General Secretary of United Cycles and Parts Manufacturers Association (UCPMA) said that, “It is very late that the government has started thinking about the MSMEs especially when it has become an electricity surplus state.”

“Everyone knows that it is political move and electricity is a main factor to remain in the power,” said Entrepreneur.

He said the move to bring some relief to them for few months but would not last for long.

He stated that the Government has already said that electricity would be provided to MSME @ Rs. 4.99 per unit but it does not affect us much. (KNN/ AR)