Phd Chamber Concerned Over Haryana Power Situation

The Phd Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PhdCCI) has submitted a note to Haryana State Electricity Board (HSEB) chairman Ranjit Issar questioning the Board's complete stagnation in power generation capacity in the past decade.

The chamber pointed out that the state's financial incapacity to invest in maintenance and creation of transmission and distribution system has led to a virtual collapse of the power situation.

Despite the undisputed necessity to strengthen the industrialisation drive in the state, electricity cuts of unprecedented nature, scheduled or unscheduled, are being imposed on the industries with a disturbing regularity, it said.

While acknowledging the state plan to privatise power distribution in Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat and Rohtak districts, the chamber asked the Haryana government to make a formal statement explaining the reformative steps it proposes to take in the power sector. The state had recently set up two companies - Transco and Genco - to handle transmission and generation.

 

Regarding the recently formed power regulatory commission, the chamber said its role should be to assess the price of electricity on technical, commercial and financial grounds.

It stressed that if the state feels that a certain category of consumers need to be provided electricity at rates lower than the prevailing prices based upon the principle of commercial viability, it should go ahead only after purchasing the power at the given rate from the producers or the distributors, as the case may be.

The mechanism of implementing subsidised power supply and funding of the subsidy should be done by the state, without putting any financial burden on the production, transmission or distribution system, the chamber said.

The state government was asked to expedite its proposal to allow the private sector to set up 25 mw liquid fuel-based power plants in different parts of the state.