The North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nocci) has reacted sharply against the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (OERC) decision of hiking the electricity tariff by Rs 20 for all sectors except farming from October 1.
It observed that the hike is ill-timed when the economy as a whole along with manufacturing is struggling due to the Covid pandemic and the same is reflected in the negative growth 23.5 per cent of GDP in the previous quarter.
The Nocci further maintained that the OERC ignored the inefficiency of the Distcoms when the industrial consumers were facing low voltage, frequent tripping, unplanned outage causing huge financial losses due to loss in production, wastage of material and manpower, damage to plant and machinery, etc.
The industry body further alleged that although it had given several suggestions to improve the power distribution mechanism in the past to the OERC, those were ignored.