| Date: |
17-01-2015 |
| Subject: |
Power ministry reworking gas pooling proposal |
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NEW DELHI: The power ministry is reworking a proposal to pool prices of domestic and international gas after the oil ministry said there is no additional fuel available from NELP fields till March 2017, power secretary P K Sinha said on Friday.
This comes as a dampener to the hopes of 24000-mw stressed gas-based plants that were pinning revival hopes on the Centre's gas pooling proposal.
The proposal prepared earlier by oil and power ministries sought supply of any additional gas produced in the country in the next four years to power stations along with imported liquefied natural gas. State-run GAIL India and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPCL) are likely to be the pool operators.
The gas will be supplied at an average 'pooled' price of domestic and imported gas, while the electricity from the plants will be supplied at Rs 5.5 per unit to power distribution companies.
The scheme also proposed subsidising firms operating the gas-based power stations from the National Clean Energy Fund made of a cess collected from coal miners.
The plan includes simplifying procedure for availing customs duty waiver on LNG and scrapping value added tax and central sales tax collected by states.
At present, there is a 5.15% customs duty on imports as most developers are unable to avail the waiver benefits due to technical problems. Value-added tax varies from 0-26% in states. The central sales tax is levied by the central government but collected by states.
The government plans to subsidise gas-based plants located in states that have agreed for the waiver.
Gas transporters Gail India and Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd will be asked to take 20% cut in pipeline tariff, which will help them improve utilisation.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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