The power gap is expected to widen to 90 MU within a week. The industrial sector may see peak hour cuts apart from three-day holidays once again. Industry associations are now demanding contract-based power supply due to the continuing crisis in the state, which has affected the manufacturing sector in a big way.
Small industries are demanding that the government should extend a 25 per cent subsidy on the purchase of diesel power generating sets and on the Central excise duty on diesel. “The government should give an undertaking to supply power to all the industries as the industrial sector has been suffering a great deal due to the power crisis. We are facing power cuts three days in a week and we do not know when the supply will become normal. The government should provide power connections without deposit and service lines and transformers free of cost,” said B.V. Rama Rao, president of Federation of Andhra Pradesh Industries.
Larger industries have already given blanket approval to the proposed Expensive Power Supply Scheme, where they had to commit to a certain level of demand, but the power utilities failed to execute the proposed scheme since the last 10 months. Meanwhile, paying back loans, interest to banks and financial institutions, and wages to workers has brought the state’s industrial sector to the brink of closure.
“The industrial sector in the state has become sick and no further expansion has been possible for over eight to 10 months now. The sector is now in a hand-to-mouth state with no possibility of assured dependable power supply. Neighbouring states are using this opportunity to grab business from us,” said Devendra Surana, president of Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.