Power majors to meet PM to discuss issues relating to power industry

18 Jan 2012 Evaluate

A high level delegation consisting of top corporate leaders of the power industry like Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Prashant Ruia, L Madhusudan Rao, Anil Aggarwal and Ashok Hinduja are likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to discuss issues relating to shortage of coal and gas, issues arising out of coal imports becoming unviable, tariff hike and pending reforms in the power sector.

India has about 10% of the world's coal reserves, but has struggled to provide enough of the fuel to power sector because of challenges in land acquisition and environmental clearances for mining. The delegation will apprise the Prime Minister of the problems they face and the need to unleash the next round of reforms to meet the growing energy needs and to keep pace with the 9% GDP growth targeted in the 12th Five Year Plan.

From the government’s side, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Environment and Forest Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are likely to attend the meeting.

Critical issues like deferred environmental clearances, slash in customs duty on imported coal, shortage of domestic coal and gas, and poor financial health of the distribution companies are likely to form the core of the discussions. The proposal to slap duty on imported power equipment would also figure in the discussions.

The Planning Commission has, however already showed its inclination for hike in tariffs to pay off the private power developers in view of increased cost of coal and other raw material after warning that banks have already started showing their unwillingness to finance power projects due to the poor outlook and various cost factors in the sector. Currently, the private power companies have a capacity of around 24,000 MW, while they are expected to add another 22,000 mw by March.

Further, it is reported that shortage of domestic supply is likely to increase coal imports by four times to 213 million tonnes in 2016-17 from 54 million tonnes this fiscal year. Tata Power and Reliance Power, developers of 4-gigawatt plus power plants, are also lobbying the government to free them from loss-making power sales contracts and want to be allowed to pass on rising fuel costs to consumers. Due to rate mismatches and subsidy problems, power distribution companies had accumulated a loss of about Rs 75,000 crore in 2008-09, which had increased to Rs 106,347 crore in 2009-10. Most discoms are under huge financial stress and some state discoms have already asked for a bailout package.

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