Penalty collected by TANGEDCO: Micro units in Coimbatore demand refund

FOCIA demands TANGEDCO refund penalties from MSMEs for power factor, urges tariff changes for small industries.

Members of the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Associations (FOCIA) submitted a memorandum to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) demanding refund of penalties collected from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for not maintaining power factor.

As many as 250 people representing 23 MSME associations in Coimbatore submitted the memorandum to the TANGEDCO officials.

They said that for the last two months, the TANGEDCO was levying penalty on industries with less than 18 KW connected load for not maintaining the power factor. The TANGEDCO did not issue any notice in advance or alert the micro units about the power factor. “The penalty was as high as 200% and was an additional burden to the micro units,” the Federation said in its memorandum.

“It should give time for the units to install capacitors and control the power factor and should refund the penalty collected so far in this regard,” said J. James, a coordinator of FOCIA.

Further, though Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had allocated funds to the TANGEDCO so that MSMEs with less than 12 KW load were charged under tariff slab III A(1), the TANGEDCO continued to levy charges under tariff slab III B. It said the tariff would be changed only for those units that apply to it for the same.

“It should make necessary changes in its system so that all manufacturing units using less than 12 KW were levied charges under the III A (1) slab,” the Federation said.