Despite having close to 377 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which is being supplied to the power sector by Coal India ( CIL ), India faces a coal shortage of 15-20 percent.
"The in-principle cabinet approval for coal price pooling has been taken. The Finance Minister, myself and the Coal Minister are working on the mechanics in terms of iterative processes with boundary conditions to make sure that this becomes reality in the next couple of weeks. I will have a solution and that is my commitment," says Scindia who stresses on the issue of coal shortage being a live one.
Below is the edited transcript of Scindia's interview to CNBC-TV18.
Q: There was some disappointment on the sunset clause for the power sector which has been extended only for a year. The sense in industry is that this is a capital intensive business and had the sunset clause been extended, it would have been extended for atleast five years and not just one, right?
A: For all the plants that are going to come up in 2013-14, they enjoy full 100 percent coverage under section 80IA in the first 15 years, taking depreciation on a continuous 10-year period in any of those 10 years, within the 15-year period. So, even though the expectation was that it should be extended for a longer period, atleast it has been extended for the next year. Therefore, there is certainly a greater level of confidence among investors going forward.
Q: Do you believe that there is more confidence in private sector participation post this Budget? As far as the power sector is concerned, there is a whole host of issues that cloud investment. And those continue to be left unattended. You are trying to deal with them but they haven't been completely addressed so far. What assurance can you hold out for investors on the issue of coal linkages for instance?
A: In the last 100 days that I have been given responsibility of this ministry, we have been working over time in terms of resolving issues along with all stakeholders. For the first time, after a very long period, I have set-up six institutional mechanisms to assist the power sector along the way.
It will assist people, both on the government side as well as the private sector side. These include the banking group with whom I have had three consultative committee meetings. It also include the meeting with regulators- the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).
We have attained tremendous amount of traction in key issues affecting the sector. The fuel supply agreement (FSA) not being signed was a great thorn in the flesh for the power sector because of divergence between norms for the private sector and the public sector. After a very long meeting with the Coal Ministry, we have actually done away with all the discrepancies between those two sectors.
There was also for the first time a clause that has been put in for third quality monitoring and third party audit for coal quality. This was a much long awaited demand of the Independent Power Producer (IPP) that will be a part of every single fuel supply agreement (FSA). Out of the 60 gigs of FSA needed to be signed, we have signed 29 gigs. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will be signing the next 15 gigs worth of FSAs in the next two to three weeks. So, we have achieved traction along the way.
On the issue of coal shortage, it is a very live issue. We have close to 377 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which is being supplied to the power sector by Coal India (CIL). Even that assumes a close to 15-20 percent shortage. There is no option, but to import coal and therefore the in-principle cabinet approval for coal price pooling has been taken. The Finance Minister, myself and the Coal Minister are working on the mechanics in terms of iterative processes with boundary conditions to make sure that this becomes reality in the next couple of weeks. I will have a solution and that is my commitment.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
No option but to import coal: Scindia
Dengan url
https://citraasa.blogspot.com/2013/03/no-option-but-to-import-coal-scindia.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
No option but to import coal: Scindia
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
No option but to import coal: Scindia
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar