Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 23: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, J&K Council has welcomed the presentation of a separate Power Budget by the State Government for the year 2015-16.
A Chamber spokesman said that Power revenue deficit is the biggest back hole in the economy of the State and the sector needs immediate and emergent steps for the structural reforms, un-bundling, reduction in T&D losses and effective metering. The PHD Chamber welcomes the initiatives for corporatization of the JKSPDC as also sale of bonds for the same, early establishment and operationalization of proposed Thermal Plant in association with NTPC would also be a good step.
The Chamber further called for early un-bundling of the PDD and hoped that the same would be done in a time bound manner in the near future. Establishment of Transformer banks would mitigate consumers sufferings, however, dues of transformer manufacturers also need to be liquidated at the earliest.
The spokesman said that State of the art meter testing Labs are a necessity for effective checking of meters including fast running meters as was the case in Delhi. This step would go a long way in securing consumer confidence. The Chamber also welcomed establishment of Chenab Power Management and Training Institute for upgradation of skills of department employees. Chamber pointed out that revenue gap Rs/Kwh did not reflect the gap in real terms as fixed monthly demand charges and electricity duty at 22 % are also a part of revenue to the State Government and are a substantive amount. As such the real per unit cost of power to consumers across all categories is much higher. The Government must take steps to reduce distribution losses across all sectors.
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