Mahe Mill gets bill shock from PED

Whopping electricity usage penalties have spun a crisis at the Cannanore Spinning and Weaving Mills in Mahe, an enclave of Puducherry in Kerala.

Between June 2012 and last month, the mill has forked out an estimated Rs. 2.31 crore by way of penalities for consuming electricity in excess of a pre-fixed demand quota of 1,250 KVA. Worse still, these payments are made from its rapidly eroding working capital.

Now, workers fear that if these “bill shocks’ continue, it was only a matter of time before the mill falls sick and faces the prospect of closure by the National Textile Corporation (NTC), workers fear.

As a part of crisis resolution efforts, a delegation of MLAs and trade union representatives met Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and sought his intervention in saving the unit.

“We have asked the government to take up the issue of revising the power allocation for the mill with the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission,” said E. Valsaraj, MLA, who was part of the delegation that called on Mr. Rangasamy.

The delegation also included A.V. Sreedharan, former Deputy Speaker, and nine labour representatives from the Mill.

In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, the management and workers point out that the unit was a source of livelihood to hundreds of persons in the Mahe enclave.

The mill was not doing too well until it made a turnaround after the Union government and the NTC facilitated a modernisation drive. Following the upgrade, the mill marched to profits though power drawals began to overstep the prescribed 1,250 KVA cut-off.

The unit had in fact applied and paid requisite fees for sanctioning the additional power load of 450 KVA with the local authorities, the memorandum stated.

However, when the mill began to exceed the sanctioned energy quota, the Puducherry Electricity Department (PED) began issuing penal charges.

When approached, the PED’s position was that the power quotas approved for Mahe by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) had already been exceeded and that additional power sanctions were possible only on allocation from the Central pool.

The PED also stated that sanctioning more power would depend on strengthening the distribution network from the KSEB sub station to the Mahe sub station, by any stretch a time-consuming process.

The PED has refused to stop levying penalties for exceeding power quota despite the fact that the unit had remitted Rs. 86 lakh as additional security deposit for additional caution deposit.

“We wish to state that any reduction in productive activities of the unit will result in erosion of the huge capital investment made by the Union government apart from causing unemployment to several workers,” the memorandum stated.

The mill management and workers have sought a waiver of penalties and the penal charges collected so far to be adjusted against future bills.