Seeking urgent intervention from the state government to address the issue of power shortage in the state at the earliest, pharma companies in Goa have demanded affordable and uninterrupted power supply for pharma clusters. Pharma companies across Goa are reportedly going through a very rough phase due to severe shortage of power especially in important pharma clusters like Verna Industrial Estate, which house nearly 30 pharma units within its enclosure.
Concerned over growing issues that the pharma companies are facing due to dearth of power supply, the Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association (GPMA) has called upon the state government to provide adequate power supply to the industry. They fear that the power crisis may push frustrated manufacturers to shift their base to other states that have more industry friendly approach than the state of Goa.
Reliance used to supply power to the pharma companies within this industrial belt as per their requirement at a rate of Rs.14 per unit. However, it is understood that owing to the non-viability in continuing with this business, Reliance stopped supplying power to the companies directly complicating the matter for the industry.
Suresh Kamath, president, Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association (GPMA) informs that, ever since they have stopped doing so, the government had been supplying the power to these clusters through Reliance at a far more rate than it supplies to others. While the government charges only Rs.4 per unit for others, they are charging Rs.14 when supplying to the pharma companies through Reliance.
Kamath stressed that what is more frustrating is that in spite of paying more to the government, there is still irregularities in getting power supply to the companies. “Goan Pharma industry is already going through a very rough phase, wherein we are already grappling with other challenges like land and labour issues, water shortage, etc. For running a pharma unit, we need continuous power supply, even power cut for a short while can amount to loss that may come to lakhs of rupees, a risk that we can hardly afford to take. That is why we are even paying more than what is reasonable to the government to get timely and unrestricted power. However in spite of all this we still have to go without power for short period which is turning into problem for us as we always have to depend on some alternative method as a back up which is even costlier,” he added.