While on one hand Maharashtra is pitching to make the Make in India campaign a success, on the other hand, the state has allegedly lost 500 industrial consumers. Activists have claimed that the consumers like Raymonds, railways and Bharat Forge have gone to open access as the power tariff of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahadiscom) is too expensive as compared to private generation companies.
The consumers have started shifting to open grid access from 2012, after the Centre allowed change of supplier in the Electricity Act 2003. The open grid allows consumers of 1megawatt (mw) and above to buy cheaper power from other companies in the market. The shift of consumers is ironic for the state when it has declared a cut in power tariff for those interested in setting up industries in Vidarbha and Marathwada.
“According to the figures released by Mahadiscom, they have lost about 500 of their consumers. It includes big companies like Raymond, railways and Bharat Forge. The state sells its power at Rs 8 per unit while in the open access, it is Rs 5.5- Rs 6 per unit. There are only 1,800 consumers who use more than 1 mw and of them 500 have already left,” convenor of Veej Grahak Sanghatana, Pratap Hogade said. The exodus had started in 2012, but the state lost most of the companies in the past two years, he said.
The state government has admitted the loss in consumers but tried to downplay it. “We have so far lost about 200 to 250 industrial units from the consumers’ list due to the high power tariff. As the consumers can now opt for open access electricity, we are apprehensive that it could lead to further loss in industrial consumers,” an official from the energy department said, confirming the development. In order to retain the industries with the Mahadiscom, the official said that the government had announced to reduce industrial power tariff in less developed areas of the state such as Vidarbha and Marathwada.
However, Mr Hogade said that the latest proposal by the state to hike the power tariff would nullify the subsidy offered to Vidabarbha and Marathwada. The power hike proposal also showed that there is no demand for industrial power. The state had a demand for 25,000 Million Unit (mu) of power in 2010 for industries while in 2016 it fell to 22,000 mu, the official added. Maharashtra has 25 per cent higher tariff than the neighbouring states Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Mr Hogade also expressed fear that the exodus of the industrial units would put burden on the residential and other small consumers, as the state will lose benefits from its industrial consumers. Also, the residential consumers get subsidy because the power tariff is more for industries, he said.
