Crisis deepens for industries

Industries and commercial ventures, which are facing power cuts as well as steep hike in power tariff, have seen no growth for over a year now. Most powerintensive units, especially of steel and ferro alloys, are heavily debt-ridden. Many such units in Medak have closed shop, said industry representatives.

“Almost 70 per cent of the small industries located in and around Medak district are shutting down. Because of high power tariffs and acute shortage of power, they are unable to maintain normal operations and are running into huge losses,” said Narsing Rao, the president of Medak Small Scale Industries’ Association.

Even steel industry units are badly hit as power is a major input for them. The industry has been getting only 35 per cent of power for the last one-and-a-half years. Moreover, Fuel Surcharge Adjustment adds nearly `10-20 lakh to the bill.

“While earlier we used to have bills amounting to `10 lakh, with the FSA component coming into play, the bills have gone up by nearly 50 per cent. Also, the industries are getting supplementary bills running into lakhs as penalty for overdrawing. Under such circumstances, my earnings are not sufficient to pay off the power bills and then sustain the plant. There is no other option for steel units. We have to down the the shutters,” said an industrial unit owner at the Jeedimetla