The electricity board is providing a discount to MSMEs which were affected by an increase in recent tariffs on electricity.
Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) officials has suggested that the government provide rebates to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) affected because of the recent hike in electricity tariff.
Mrs. Harini deputy general manager (DGM) of BESCOM said, “Consumers can request under the two schemes. We are providing a Rs 5 per unit discount underone scheme and a Rs 2 per unit rebate under another. Consumers can mail a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to BESCOM. The new electricity bills will be issued most probably by the end of this month.”
The first scheme is the ‘Discounted Energy Rate Scheme’ (DERS) for high tension (HT) consumers, under which according to the new orders commission will fix new rates for the scheme at Rs 5 per unit against the existing Rs 6per unit, explained Ms. Kritika, project manager, BESCOM. She further explained under the second scheme which is the Special Incentive Scheme (SIS) Rs. 2 rebate will be provided for night consumption and a Re1 rebate will be provided for day consumption to High Tension (HT) consumers. HT consumers are the ones who draw electricity at a very high voltage. It includes commercial industrial category, government hospitals, universities or educational institutions run by government etc.
This decision came after several industries requested BESCOM to provide relief on tariffs on electricity. “Currently, they are taking Rs 2.89/unit but we asked for a discount of 50 Paise/unit” said Mr. Vijay Kiran Manager of PeenyaIndustries Association (PIA). Mr. Vijay added, “PIA requested a rebate or some kind of discount as the tariff on electricity came as a huge burden, especially to the small-scale industry owners.”
Small-scale industries were the ones that were largely affected by the sudden increase in tariffs. Mr Tapan in charge of a steel manufacturing plant said, “The cost of raw materials, and transportation is already rising, and now the electricity tariff hike is becoming a huge burden for us.”
Due to the tariff revision, charges per unit increased by an average of 70 paise in June 2023.
According to the government’s annual report on MSMEs, Karnataka has a share of 6 percent in MSMEs in all of India. Karnataka has more than 8.5 lakh MSMEs which provide employment to over 55 lakh people but the number of MSMEs has been declining in the country for a few years. Meanwhile, Abdul Wasid a small-scale industry owner said that these hikes do not affect his businesses at all. “These things are a matter of time they will come and go, in reality, this does not affect us,” said Mr. Wasid.
