COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu Industrial Electricity Consumers Federation, which comprises over 50 MSME associations from Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode, has started sending letters to the chief minister demanding the rollback of electricity tariff hikes. The federation would send one lakh letters to the CM’s office by September 24 to highlight their demand.
“The MSMEs in these three districts have been affected by the peak hour charges and fixed demand charges. Many MSME industries are finding it a big challenge to run even one shift. Our finding is that peak hour charge calculation is made randomly by taking eight hours from 24 hours in a day. In the eight hours, charges are multiplied by two to put 50% additional charges instead of taking exact calculations from 6 am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 10 pm, which is prescribed as peak hours by the electricity department. Also, the fixed charge is increased from Rs 35 to Rs 153 for a kW consumption unit,” said J James, one of the coordinators of the federation.
“We filed numerous petitions, but it didn’t yield any results. We even sat on a hunger strike at Karanampettai on September 7, but no action has been taken yet,” he said. M Jayabal, another coordinator of the federation, said, “MSME units are not able to bear the expenditure caused by electricity tariff. Many MSMEs have closed down as their electricity charge has been doubled. For instance, a unit consuming 30 kw is forced to pay more than Rs 10,000 from the Rs 6,000 they used to pay earlier. Around 150 industrial associations have joined hands with the opposition to send a letter to CM’s office.
Meanwhile, at a joint press meeting, office bearers announced that they had decided to take their grievances to the CM’s knowledge. They called for a reduction in LT-Fixed Charges from Rs 72 to Rs 20 for 0 - 12 kw units, Rs 77 to Rs 35 for 0 - 50 kw units, Rs 153 to Rs 35 for 50 - 112 kw and Rs 562 to Rs 350 for 112 kw to 150 kw.