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Assn plea on power charges

COIMBATORE: The Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association (SIEMA) has requested the State Electricity Board to withdraw its order asking the industries to pay four months' current power consumption charges as additional deposit.

It has also requested the board to pay the interest due on deposits which had been placed with the board by the consumers.

In a statement, Mr R. Vellingiri, President, SIEMA said the industrial consumers have been asked to make an additional deposit of four times their current consumption bills.

Earlier, the meter readings were taken once in two months and the payments were made after that. But with the installation of electronic CT meter system in industrial units, the readings were taken every month and bills paid for every month.

He said since the board was getting paid within the stipulated period after meter reading every month, there was no need for collecting additional deposit of four months' power consumption charges.

He said the other alternative of collecting Rs 800 for every HP of connected load would put an additional burden on the engineering industries which were already reeling under recession. He suggested that for engineering industries, the TNEB could collec t the deposits on the maximum power consumption charges during October to March 2001 as per the existing system.

The SIEMA president also said that the board has not paid the interest on consumer deposits from October 2000 and requested the TNEB to pay interest on deposits. -- Our Bureau