Eight industrialists, including Cyrus Mistry, Anil Ambani, Gautam Adani and GM Rao, met principal secretary in PMO Pulok Chatterji to demand higher tariff for their power plants as they fear coal imports by Coal India Ltd would substantially raise their costs of production.
The industrialists had earlier persuaded the prime minister's office (PMO) to direct Coal India to deliver at least 80% of the committed supplies to ease fuel scarcity. But even this is not enough to run the plants at optimal capacity.
The industrialists told Chatterji that this level of supply would be enough to run the projects at 68% capacities requiring another 17% from imports or e-auction.
"The companies have asked for policy intervention to remedy impact on tariff," industry sources said. Projects with about 37,600-mw are run on coal supplied by Coal India.
The companies suggested setting up an expert body to evolve mechanisms to review contracts impacted due to change in law in other countries, less supply by Coal India and delay or denial in environment clearances to captive coal blocks. Over 14,000-mw projects based on imported coal are likely to be hit due to a regulatory change in Indonesia that made imports costly.
The power producers, led by Association of Power Producers (APP), also demanded signing of long term gas supply agreements, discontinuation of gas supply to steel and fertiliser units and relocation to power plants and bulk coal and LNG imports to fulfill short-term demand of power sector.
Pooling of imported coal with domestic coal prices, privatisation of electricity distribution companies, fast-tracking of regulatory clearances, speeding up hydropower plants in north east, and reviewing documents to bid power projects were also on their agenda, the sources said.
"Chatterji agreed with the proposal given by the delegation and assured that since the recommendations made by the APP are genuine and practical, it would be addressed immediately," Association of Power Producers Director General Ashok Khurana said.
Two senior government officials said Chatterji agreed to go through the industry wish list.
The companies also sought permission to divert surplus from captive coal blocks and exemption from proposed import duty on power equipment besides presenting their wish list for union budget 2012-13.
The delegation later met Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The meetings followed January 18 meeting of 17 industrialists with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after which a secretary level panel headed by Pulok Chatterji was set up that directed Coal India Ltd to assure supplies for 20 years to 50,000-mw power plants that are proposed to be commissioned by March 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment