hyderabad the ice cream industry in andhra pradesh which comprises around 3700 organised and unorganized units is facing a meltdown thanks to the acute power shortage close to 250300 small to medium sized units have already shut shop and many more are on the verge of closure said indian ice cream manufacturers association iicma managing committee member ajay reddy who also helms the citybased dairy ice creams and frozen foods as managing director ironically though the ice cream manufacturing units are exempt from power cuts and enjoy 247 power what is taking its toll on the industry is the fact that the ice cream demand has melted by 3035 due to distributors and dealers especially in smaller towns not picking up stocks due to power shortages at their end unlike other sectors the ice cream industry is completely dependent on power as it requires power from the point of production to the point of consumption thus with longer power cuts the overall industry is bound to suffer said g chandramogan managing director of hatsun agro products limited which makes the arun brand of ice cream viren shah managing director of hyderabadbased scoops ice cream said power shortage had emerged as the biggest stumbling block for the rs 120 crore ice cream industry in the state the ice cream retailers in smaller towns are hesitant to buy bulk stocks and are keeping only a days stock of ice cream with them fearing melting of their stock due to long hours of power cuts while the ice cream industry in hyderabad has not been affected too badly due to the power situation the business in visakhapatnam and the district headquarters of the state has barely managed to stay afloat as the power cut duration ranges from two to four hours which was manageable local ice cream manufacturers said according to iicma president and vadilal industries managing director rajesh gandhi as if the grim power situation in the state was not enough the industry was also facing the heat from various government levies on an average the industry is subjected to 15 vat and 2 excise duty the industry can only flourish if the government removes excise duty and states reduce vat levels the national ice cream industry is pegged at around rs 5000 crore incidentally in move aimed at providing a fillip to the food processing industry finance minister p chidambaram had in 2006 fully exempted ice cream industry from the excise duty but this decision was reversed by his successor pranab mukherjee who first imposed a 1 excise duty arguing that ice creams were a luxury and later hiked it to 2 with chidambaram back at the helm of the finance ministry iicma has now urged union agriculture and food processing industries minister sharad pawar to urge the fm to remove excise duty gandhi added speaking about the potential of the ice cream market pradeep chona of ahmedabadbased havmor ice cream said even neighbouring pakistan relishes more ice cream than indians