Rising cost

Patna, Jan. 22: The industries, left bruised by the implementation of fuel surcharge with retrospective effect from January to September 2009, have demanded that the government should either withdraw or foot the bill of surcharge by making a provision in the 2011-12 budget.

During a pre-budget meeting with deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, trade and industry members presented a charter of demands vis-à-vis energy, a key infrastructural component for smooth and rapid industrialisation, including withdrawal of fuel surcharge, as they were unable to give the energy charges being realised after almost two years.

Bihar Chamber of Commerce (BCC) president O.P. Sah, Bihar Industries Association (BIA) president Shailendra P. Sinha, BIA vice-president Subhash Kumar Patwari, BIA general secretary Sanjay Goenka, CII Bihar state council president Satyajit Kumar Singh and others represented the members of trade and industry.

Holding Bihar State Electricity Board responsible for the current economic mess, the industry bodies said people and industries in particular were paying the price for the board’s inefficiencies on various counts such as high-level transmission and distribution losses, managerial inefficiencies, high establishment cost, non-realisation of revenue from government departments, boards, corporations.

“Why should people pay the price for the board’s inefficiency. The state government should bear the economic burden of fuel surcharge as there cannot be any justification for raising a huge bill after 22 months and that too with retrospective effect,” BCC president O.P. Sah told The Telegraph.

Sah said as energy was the priority sector for the government, so it should earmark a budgetary provision for new power plants at Kanti and Barauni.

BIA vice-president Subhas Kumar Patwari said the fuel surcharge cannot be justified at all as “industries are not in a position to bear the additional burden and hence the government should withdraw or compensate the board on behalf of the consumers”.

CII Bihar council president Satyajit Singh told The Telegraph that “the decision to raise the energy charge on account of fuel surcharge is a lethal one for industries as most of the industries, particularly small ones, are not in a position to give surcharge with retrospective effect as they have already completed the audit and balance sheets and hence, it is quite impossible for us to realise the money from customers to whom we have already sold the product”.

BIA general secretary Sanjay Goenka, however, opined that annual minimum guarantee (AMG) and monthly minimum guarantee (MMG) charges, which industries have to give as minimum fixed charge to the board irrespective of the fact whether the firms were running or not, should be completely abolished according to the industrial policy of 2006.

The surcharge has been imposed on to the customers with retrospective effect from January 2009 to September 2009 as NTPC has hiked the rate due to the increase in price of coal.

The board, just ahead of the election, name . The government later compensated the revenue loss of Rs 90 crore to the electricity board for three months from October to December 2008 because of the increasing pressure from trade and industry.

The electricity board, which has recently started issuing energy bills to all types of customers except BPL families and agriculture purposes for nine months from January to September 2009, would realise around Rs 270 crore for the said period.