The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has come out strongly against the spate of power cuts and TANGEDCO's move to revise the tariffs for various categories.
In a statement issued here, chamber senior president S. Rethinavelu said that with the exception of Chennai, Tamil Nadu has been facing six hours unscheduled load shedding, which has crippled trade and industry, especially the small scale industries.
Recurrent power cuts has frustrated running even one shift continuously and small industries, unable to maintain quality in their products, have been forced to pay compensation.
ADVERTISEMENT
Many units have shutdown accentuating the unemployment ratio in the country.
“With no discernable salvation from this extreme predicament in the near future, people in the State are deeply worried and concerned about the coming summer season... We (Chamber) therefore request Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to have an interaction with trade and industry bodies and streamline the power distribution network and take steps for immediate functioning of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project,” said Mr. Rethinavelu.
Chamber senior president N. Jegatheesan said that any hike in power tariff must be resorted to only after Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company's (TANGEDCO) was in a position to supply adequate and uninterrupted power.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continuous process industries were suffering huge losses on account of incessant power cuts and any tariff hike would only sound the “death knell” for the entire industrial sector in the State. This would only result in an active shift of trade and industry to other States.
While growth of agricultural sector was sine quo non for the overall economic development of State and with free power supply to farmers being an integral part of this strategy, he said that industry must not be forced to cross subsidise the free power.
The TNERC must ensure the subsidy was completely borne by the State Government.