Knitwear units say power bills made up

A deputation of Knitwear Club Regd, led by its president, Vinod K Thapar, met today the chief engineer of the Punjab State Electricity Board, D B Arora, and apprised him of the difficulties being faced by the knitwear industry, with emphasis on the electricity bills being set on the basis of assumptions rather than consumption.

Speaking to Business Standard, Thapar said he was satisfied with the meeting. "The chief engineer listened to our grievances and promised us that these demands will be met very soon. Our main problem is that for quiet some time a majority of the knitwear units of the city are complaining of getting electricity bills on the calculated or assumed basis than the actual power consumption of those units. Another major problem was that bills against meter rent are being sent for four to five years old meters whereas the fact remains that new electronic meters were installed somewhere in October 2005.''

"Another difficulty that we face is that ours is a seasonal industry and that is why the machines we use are seasonal. That means a machine that we use in summers is not used in winters and vice versa. And whenever the observers of PSEB visit our factory premises, they fined us assuming that we are using more power load than the actual assigned to us. But actually this is not like that. That is why we have to pay heavy fines."

Further adding, Thapar said that these days, due to unplanned power cuts, whole industry is suffering.

"Knitwear industry is one industry of the country in which power consumption during summers is more than any other industry. We demanded from the chief engineer that we should be informed in advance whenever there is a power cut so that we can make our arrangements accordingly.''

"Regarding the case of bills against meter rent, being sent for four to five years old meters, the chief engineer ensured us that it will be sorted out in the meeting of PSEB scheduled for May 6. He also assured us that the industry will be informed in advance whenever there is any power cut,'' added Thapar.

Those who accompanied Vinod K Thapar included Narinder K. Miglani, Rajinder Bhushan Maini, Sudarshan Jain, Surinder Kumar Palta, Jagmohan Singh, Darshan Dawar, Jaswant Takkar, Charanjiv Singh and others.