Small industries register protest; warns shut down

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), which had hiked the rate of 70 paise per unit of electricity on May 12, has now again ordered an average increase of 51 paise per unit under the pretext of ‘Fuel and Power Purchase Cost Adjustment (FPPCA)’ charge.

As per the new notification, BESCom consumers have to pay 51 paise extra per unit from July 1 to Sept. 30. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 50 paise extra needs to be paid for every unit of electricity. MESCom consumers have to pay 47 paise per unit from July 1 to Sept. 30 and 46 paise from Oct. 1 to Dec 31.

CESC (Mysuru) consumers have to pay 41 paise more for every unit from July 1 to December 31 while HESCom (Hubballi-Dharwad) consumers have to shell out 50 paise more for every unit from July 1 to Dec. 31.

GESCom (Kalaburagi) consumers have to pay 34 paise per every unit extra from July 1 to Sept. 30 and 33 paise for every unit from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

On the issue of a hike in electricity tariff by Rs. 2.89 per unit, Chief Minister Siddharamaiah said, the decision was not taken by the Government but by the KERC. “We did not decide to hike the electricity tariff. The KERC has decided. We have implemented it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) warned that its members would shut down the industry if the hike is not reversed. The Association warned that such hikes will hurt the industry till normalcy is restored in the economy or for at least two years.