Worried over the huge lease that pharma companies have to shell out for re-cabling and getting electricity supply from the Goa electricity board, Goa Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association (GPMA) has approached the state government to urgently intervene and provide them with some reprieve. It is understood that to get unhindered power supply, the companies are required to pay Rs.10 lakh for re-cabling purpose to the department, every five years, which the industry is finding to be huge financial burden.

Severe power shortage, especially in some of the important pharma clusters housing pharma units, has become a mounting issue for the sector. GPMA informs that pharma companies across Goa are reportedly going through a very rough phase, which is not only pushing the investors from investing in the state, but also forcing the existing manufacturers to look at more industry freindly turfs across the country.

Suresh Kamath, president of GPMA pointed out that interestingly, the service for which Goa electricity board is charging the industry is supposed to be free of cost. However, he informed that the board is persistent that it has no other alternative than charge them with the hefty fees due lack of funds with them for the same.

“It is a huge blow for us. How are we supposed to function without consistent power supply. The government is failing to provide us with basic requirements, but also charging us a hefty fees for the same. Firstly, we are absolutely finding the lease amount to be unrealistically high. Secondly, even if we do pay the high price, we simply do not understand the logic behind renewing the lease again every five years. With this kind of inflation the lease amount is bound to increase as well, putting more pressure on us in the future,” stressed Kamath.

He further added that understanding the critical nature of this issue the industry wants the state government to provide relief for them. This he added can be best done by funding the electricity board with adequate funds so that they do not force the industry for pay for the re cabling charge.

Before the crisis, Reliance used to supply power to the pharma companies within some industrial belt as per their requirement at a rate of Rs.14 per unit. However, due to the non-viability in continuing with this business, Reliance stopped supplying power to the companies directly complicating the matter for the industry.

Ever since, the government had been supplying the power to these clusters through Reliance at a higher rate than it supplies to others. It is understood that, under the current circumstances, while the government charges only Rs.4 per unit from others, they are charging Rs.14 when supplying to the pharma companies through Reliance.