Balasore, April 14: North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI) today voiced its protest against the “exorbitant” hike in water tax.

“The recent hike in water tax is as high as 82 times of the existing water tax rate. Exorbitant hike in water tax and radical changes in irrigation laws in the state has caused serious setback to the operating industries here,” alleged NOCCI convenor Arabinda Behera.

As per the Orissa Irrigation (Amendment) Rule 2010, the industries will be charged Rs 3.40 per cubic metre to Rs 9.00 per cubic metre as against the previous rates of Rs 0.11 per cubic metre to Rs 0.55 per cubic metre, he said.

“The sharp rise in water tax has direct impact on production cost of the industries since water is one of the major components needed for running an industry. Consequentially, the water intensive industries will be compelled to enhance their selling price and will lose their competitiveness in the market,” Behera said.

The hike has been effective from October last year, he said. “The government does not have a clear water usage policy. There is no incentive for the industries to invest on water conservation or harvesting,” alleged Debasish Mahanty, NOCCI president.

“The government is behaving more like an extortionist than a regulator. It has been evident from this hike after the proposed hike in the electricity tariff,” he alleged.

“Since our’s is an water intensive industry, the burden on us would be enormous.We will have to pay an additional Rs 4 crore,” said S.K. Khaitan, a senior executive of Emami Paper Mills.