Power tariff in Karnataka hike will destroy MSEs: KASSIA

Bengaluru, Feb 15 (KNN) In the wake of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company’s (BESCOM) proposal to increase power tariff, the micro and small scale industries are looking up to the state budget for their survival, said K.N. Narasimha Murthy, President, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) on Wednesday.

He has urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to do away with the proposed tariff hike of Rs 1.46 paise per unit across all categories as this may well end up as a final nail in the coffin of many ailing Micro, Small Enterprises (MSEs).

“Such continued tariff hikes are eating away the small margin of the MSEs and virtually destroying them,” he said in a statement.

Murthy hoped that the tariff would not be touched as assured by Energy Minister, V. Sunil Kumar in the Legislative Council session a few days ago.
 
KASSIA’s chief has expressed his anguish at the move to pass on the burden of unpaid government dues on the consumers and especially the MSEs who were continuing to grapple with the post-pandemic effects of Covid-19 and the continuing after-effects of the Ukraine war.

Additionally they are also facing the impact of domestic inflation and global recession in a highly competitive market.

Murthy said it was grossly unfair on the part of the government to squeeze the MSEs to meet the continuing transmission and distribution losses, unpaid interest and principal dues, amounting to over Rs 8,000 crore.
 
“The irony is that the government says we are a surplus energy state and yet the cost of power is raised again and again,” he lamented.  (KNN Bureau)