A delegation of mini steel plant owners met the Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) Subodh Kumar Singh on Thursday to demand a special relief package for their units in the State.
The members of the delegation also demanded a cut in the demand charge and power tariff for their units, official sources informed. Singh assured to take up the demand of the mini steel plant owners with the State Government.
Meanwhile, Kamal Aggarwal Senior Vice-President of All India Induction Furnaces Association in a letter addressed to Chief Minister Raman Singh stated: ‘We have come to know recently that the electricity tariff has been hiked by the Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board which has badly hit the secondary steel producing units due to rising cost of input materials, transportation, non-availability of steel scrap, etc.
The peak time electricity tariffs are at a premium of 30% to the normal tariffs while the night-time tariffs are only being discounted by 15% making it tougher for the producers. The unit charges of electricity are also quite high at Rs 4.57 per ton unit which is forcing the owners to cut down the capacity by over 50 percent, he said.
We, as an industry contributing more than 35% of the total crude steel production of the country and generating more than 15 lakh of direct an indirect employment deserve to be heard and we hope that your just leadership will help us survive and grow in the years to come, Aggarwal said. We are more than hopeful that our member-units problems and suggestions shall be taken in a positive spirit and a workable formula shall be devised, he added.