Chandigarh, April 22
Lack of power and skilled labour in Punjab are also responsible for the state’s declining share in industrial investment. With unscheduled power cuts and mandatory off days for the industry a norm, even existing industrial units in Punjab are looking for ‘greener pastures’.

“Most of the industry in Punjab is power and labour intensive. In summers, the industry faces power cuts so that a majority of power can be diverted to the agriculture sector. This increases production cost, as captive power is very expensive. With MNREGA gaining popularity in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, labour is not willing to come to Punjab,” said Gaurav Sud, an exporter of leather goods based in Jalandhar.

He added that due to the shortage of skilled labour, he was expanding his manufacturing facility to Bahadurgarh, Haryana.

The state government is working on increasing its power generation capacity, but has so far failed to make sufficient power banking arrangements to ensure better supply to the industry. Though the state allows industrial units to buy power under its Open Access Policy, industrialists rue that this was not being encouraged.

“The per unit cost of power in Punjab (Rs 5.28 per unit) is amongst the highest in the country. Add to it the high electricity duty of 13 per cent and the high VAT on diesel used for captive power generation. This is certainly not an industry friendly environment. Because of unavailability of power from May-September each year, most orders from customers get delayed and we lose our competitive edge. This is one of the reasons that the existing industry is looking outside the state, and new investors are put off,” said P D Sharma, president, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Due to power shortage, as against a growth of 85 per cent in export of engineering goods across the country, the growth in export of engineering goods from Punjab is just 37 per cent. Successive governments have failed to address the problem of power shortage.

Now, labour shortage, too, poses a threat to expansion. Most industrial houses in Ludhiana and Jalandhar now carry boards suggesting vacancies of skilled manpower,” said S C Ralhan, regional chairman, Engineering Export Promotion Council.

He added the least the government could do was to buy additional power from power-surplus states and ensure assured supply.