The Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Associations has appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to take action on officials of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) who denied power supply under LT 3A1 tariff slab to micro and cottage industries that have less than 12 KW connection.
The Federation said in a press release that these units were eligible for lower electricity tariff (LT 3B) according to the new tariff order issued last year by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission. But, they were paying higher charges under the tariff slab LT 3A1. Though the micro units tried submitted applications for change in tariff slab, the officials refused to take action, it alleged. The government should give the lower tariff benefit to the micro and cottage units and the Tangedco should accept the applications of eligible units, it added.
Further, most of the micro and cottage industries functioned out of sheds taken on rent and had less than 112 KW connected load. The fixed charges for these should be revised downwards and the peak hour charges should be withdrawn, the Federation said.
The MSMEs were finding it difficult to continue operations because of high energy costs and industry associations were repeatedly asking for revision of the charges.
