Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Stating that the industries in Goa are facing huge losses due to load shedding, the Goa State Industries Association has asked teh power minister to act tough on power thefts.
GSIA president Damodar Kochkar said that Power Thefts amount to around 20-25%, which is a huge loss to the State Exchequer and one of the main contributors to the Industry now having to pay for these additional power costs in lieu.
“Currently, Goa is facing an acute power shortage of around 100 MW, compelling the Power Department to go in for daily load shedding, with the industry taking the whole brunt of it,” Kochkar said in the release.
Seeing this, Kochkar added, the Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar took a positive initiative to engage the industry Association to find a solution by convening a meeting at his residence on Good Friday, despite it being on holiday.
“Post which, today a joint meeting was held at the Secretariat, between the Industry Associations, Power Secretary & Chief Electrical Engineer, and presided over by the Power Minister,” he said.
The Industry Associations led by GSIA and supported by GCCI & GPMA, agreed to bail out the Government of this predicament, with the HT & HTE Consumers bearing the additional cost of Traded Power Purchased from the Open Market as per the JERC norms.
“As currently, the sudden load shedding is causing huge financial losses to the industry, which is still to recover from the Covid aftermath and the rising costs of Raw Materials,” he said.
He said running of generators, besides causing financial losses, also causes heavy environmental destruction.
“Seeing all this, the Industry Associations, despite all its predicaments, took this decision as an interim stop-gap arrangement, till the end of the summer, in the beginning, June’22, when the Power situation should improve,” he stated.
He said the Industry Associations, however made an ardent appeal to the Power Minister to address the situation of Huge Line Losses, as well as Power Thefts which amount to around 20-25%, which not only are a huge loss to the State Exchequer, but also one of the main contributors to the Industry now having to pay for this additional power costs in lieu.
