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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Aug 27: The government on Wednesday announced a series of measures aimed at giving a boost to investments in the infrastructure sector. It announced the clearance of the National Hydro Policy, a policy to allow global players to set up Satellite Phone facilities, and also recommended the promulgation of an ordinance which would allow the government more flexibility in fixing oil royalties. The Cabinet also cleared a joint venture between the public sector Indian Oil Corporation IOC with the Malaysian oil major Petronas to set up facilities for importing and marketing LPG in eastern India. Both IOC and Petronas will hold 50 per cent equity each in the new enterprise which will have an authorised share capital of Rs 200 crore. IOC and Petronas will develop facilities at the Haldia port for importing six lakh tonnes of LPG a year.
The highlight of the hydro policy announced today was that the Government has decided to establish a power development fund PDF by levying a cess on every per unit on electricity consumed. This cess will be effective after the Cess Act comes into force.
Pandit said that the final figure of the cess was under discussion but said that if for instance a cess of 10 paise was decided it would result in an annual flow of around Rs 3000 crore in the kitty of the PDF.
Pandit added that the Government was in the process of finalising the modalities related to the levying of this cess. Two-third of the proceeds after levying this cess will be utilised to promote power development by state governments.
The balance one-third will be utilised by the Centre for promoting central sector hydel projects and for investments in transmission lines for evacuation of power from inter-state mega hydel projects. The ceiling limits have been enhanced for techno economic clearance by the Central Electricity Authority CEA in respect of projects promoted on the MoU route. This has been raised from Rs 100 crore to Rs 250 crore.
The Cabinet also cleared the proposal to recommend to the promulgation of an ordinance to give effect to the Oilfields Regulation and Development Amendment Bill, 1998. Essentially, under the current law, the government can notify changes in the royalty rates only once in three years. But with the New Exploration and Licensing Policy coming into effect, the government needed the flexibility to change rates.
