Goa industry objects to hurried power rate revision

Hurried power rate revision would spell doom for the industry in Goa, a leading business association from the state has said.

It also requested the state government to take the major stakeholders into confidence before revising the power tariff.

In a petition submitted to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday, the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressed surprise at the "tearing hurry" at which the Goa State Electricity Department as well as Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) are trying to revise power rates.

"Power is an important part of manufacturing costs and any large and unreasonable variations can spell doom for the industrial consumers. Hence, it is important that the industry studies the Business Plan in detail and gives its balanced and constructive suggestions on the same," GCCI deputy director R.S. Kamat has said in his petition to Parsekar, which is available with IANS.

"The industry is also at a loss to understand why the Goa State Electricity Department as well as JERC are in such a tearing hurry to push through major changes in power tariff without giving the consumers a reasonable opportunity to study the proposals," Kamat said.

The industry in Goa over the last few years has been leveraging on successive state governments to keep the power tariff unchanged, complaining about insufficient as well as poor quality of power.

Now the alleged hurry by the state government for a revision of power rates from the JERC has raised the GCCI's hackles. Kamat claims that the six working days' window to put up suggestions or objections to the 150-page Business Plan Development submitted by the state electricity department to the JERC was "too short and it is unfair".

A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said that Parsekar, state Power Minister Milind Naik and GCCI representatives were expected to meet later this week to resolve the issue.

"The concerns of the industry in Goa will be taken into consideration before submitting the request to the JERC for power rate revision," the spokesperson said.