Power cuts may cause 40% dip in production: Assocham

New Delhi: Continued power outages in various parts of the country are adversely affecting the domestic industrial production, which may fall by 40 per cent in June-July, industry body Assocham said.

“Power cuts in the northern, southern and western regions have forced industrial units to curtail their industrial production by about 30 per cent in April-May 2014, the loss of industrial production is likely to be at 35-40 per cent in June-July, Assocham said on the basis of feedback received from its various constituents in these three regions.

During the April-May period, industrial units faced 20-25 per cent power shortages.

“As such, the regions were reeling under tremendous power shortage in April and May and the rains added to it as defects in the transmission system,” said Assocham secretary general, D. S. Rawat.
Assocham feedback is based on the latest power situation in leading states that have concentration of industrial presence at substantial level.

“Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are two states in which power cuts exceed 10-12 hours a day and face the worst energy crisis which will further deepen in the absence of corrective measures, and therefore industrial locations in these two states would have to curtail their industrial production to the extent of 45 per cent, Mr Rawat said.

The state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a power requirement of over 8,282 MU, has availability of little over 7,358 MU with deficit ranging over 11.2 per cent.

The situation is no better in Andhra Pradesh where the power deficit is approximately 12.1 per cent.

The availability in the state is only 7,976 MU against the requirement of 9,070 MU.