Parliament panel against passing of SED duty hike on power consumers

08 May 2013 Evaluate

Stressing the proposed hike in Stowing Excise Duty (SED) would push up power tariff, a parliament panel has asked the government not to pass the burden to electricity consumers and ensure it is absorbed by the coal companies. After examining the Coal Mines (Conservation & Development) Amendment Bill, 2012, which proposes such a hike, the panel said that steps taken by the government to ensure 20-30 percent increase in SED should be absorbed by the coal companies and should not be passed on to power consumers. Meanwhile, the SED is levied on total raw coal dispatches from mines.

By adding further, panel said that the government has miserably failed to utilise the fund collected earlier under SED and has endorsed the present increase in upper limit for collecting SED from Rs 10 to Rs 50 per tonne on all coal raised and dispatched. Following the decision, the coal ministry had hiked it from Rs 10 a tonne to Rs 20 a tonne for the time being. Panel also noted that against a total SED collection of Rs 2,463.22 crore during the 11th Plan period, the expenditure under the Conservation and Development Advisory CCDA schemes was Rs 756.57 crore against an allocation of Rs 862 crore.  

Further, the panel cleared that CCDA committee, which is constituted to advise the government has not played effective role in disbursement of SED proceeds and failed miserably in monitoring the expenditure of SED. Therefore, the panel strongly recommends the government to fully utilise the 35 percent of funds generated by collection of SED for different schemes and also expect the enhanced funds that be available after necessary amendment to the Act will be fully utilized.  

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