Despite industry appeal, no change in power policy
The state government’s prohibitive policy on ‘captive generation’, a process which requires 26 to 28 per cent of the power generated to be sold to state discoms, continues unchanged, despite several appeals from the power-starved industrial sector. Moreover, promises that VAT charged on diesel for captive generation would be refunded, have not materialised into a policy even one-and-a-half months after the announcement made by the CM. Also, the Expensive Power Purchase Scheme, conceived over a year ago to help the industries get access to power from other states, has not been formulated into a proposal yet.
The industrial sector in the state has gone from bad to worse over the last one-and-a- half years of continuous power crisis, upsetting the entire production cycle. The industry has seen absolutely no expansion for the past one year. Faced with increasing competition from neighbouring states, the industries in AP are running into major losses for over six months now. “Despite the promise made, there is no progress on the diesel VAT refund announcement. The government is encouraging captive solar generation, but the need of the hour is to have a workable EPPS policy which allows small, medium and large industries to purchase expensive power through the discoms,” said Fapcci president, Devendra Surana.
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