KARACHI – President, SITE Association of Industry Abdul Hadi, has in a press statement, welcomed the electricity tariff, announced by the Prime Minister, for the general industries and particularly, for the SMEs and given proposals to make it more effective.
Abdul Hadi has requested the Prime Minister to enhance the load limit for SMEs from 70-KW to 140-KW so that more industries could avail the 50pc reduced tariff on excess electricity consumed. Also the procedure for approval of excess load from the K-Electric needs to be simplified.
He further said that upon crossing electricity load limit of 70 KW, the industry exits from the SME category and cannot avail this benefit.
“It is essential to enhance the limit to 140 KW so that more & more SMEs could benefit from the announcement made by the Prime Minister of Pakistan which will not only give boost to the SMEs in the country but also open up more avenues for employment besides stabilizing economy of the country”, Abdul Hadi remarked.
Welcoming the removal of ‘peak hours’ slab, President SITE Association said that there is need to remove obstacles in the way of industrial production. Industries shut down production process during 7-00 p.m. to 11-00 p.m. (4 hours) to save high electricity cost or use gas generators as alternate solution. Due to removal of ‘peak hours’ slab, industries will be able to get electricity on 24 hours’ basis at the same rate and continue industrial production without interruption.
He further said that on using excess load by the industry, the same has to be approved by the K-Electric which is not an easy job. As such, the procedure for load enhancement must be simplified and other associated costs like installation of PMTs etc., should also be reduced.