Ironically, the Government Resolution (GR) issued on February 9 on the much-awaited constitution of the committee and its terms of reference are silent on delegation of power to it for negotiations either with the Centre and the DPC. Mantralaya sources told The Financial Express that the Godbole Committee has been formed to review the power scenario in the state, which has undergone a change in the last five years. They added that it would not be binding on the state government to make the committee's report public.

Neither would it be mandatory for the state to accept all its recommendations.

Instead, the committee has been merely empowered to conduct a `general' review of the state power situation and a `specific' review of particular independent power projects (IPPs), their implications and effects upon the power demand and supply.

The DF constituents, mainly the Peasants and Workers Party, Janata Dal (S), the RPI (Athavale) as well as the CPI(M) have already disapproved the committee's terms of reference, on the ground that it has been restricted to the review of the power purchase agreement between the MSEB and DPC for the 2,184-mw project. They have pressed for amendment to the terms of reference and urged Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that various other contracts, clearances and `secret' documents relating to the project be made available for the review.

Some DF constituents have questioned the locus standi of the committee and alleged that it would be merely recommendatory without negotiating powers.

"We want that the government to immediately change the terms of reference and delegate sufficient powers to the committee for negotiations as well as thorough scrutiny of various confidential documents," leader of a DF constituent said.

Contrary to this, the previous Shiv Sena-BJP government, which has been held responsible among political circles for the manner in which the Dabhol project was revived, had formed a negotiating group headed by former chairman of Andhra Pradesh Electricity Board N Tata Rao.

The Rao panel, formed on November 8, 1995, had been authorised to negotiate with the DPC on wide-ranging issues, such as reduction in capital cost, tariff, use of alternative fuels, foreign exchange fluctuation risk, environment safeguards, equity participation by the state government and its nominee. Interestingly, the Sena-BJP government had accommodated most of the recommendations of the Tata Rao group in its report. The Sena-BJP government had claimed that the Rao group's negotiations with the DPC had resulted in a substantial cut in the project cost of Rs 1,977 crore and added capacity.

The negotiations had led to delinking of regassification to the project, resulting in reduction of plant cost by Rs 1,580 crore.Further, the per mw cost was reduced to Rs 2.63 crore from Rs 4.06 crore.

The Indian component in Dabhol phase-II (1,444 mw) was maximised and the DPC was made to agree to competitive bidding for equipment and services for phase-II which is expected to be complete by the year-end. The DPC had agreed to lower the total project levelised tariff to Rs 1.89 per Kwh (1995 rates) while the phase-I (740-mw) had arrived at Rs 1.90 per Kwh (1995 rates).

But the Godbole Committee, on the other hand, may merely discuss with the DPC these issues but would not be in a position to `negotiate'. The committee may weigh various possibilities for a cut in the per unit cost and sharing of the financial burden among the MSEB, state and Central governments. Meanwhile, the DF constituents are furious over the inclusion of emeritus professor of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Dr Kirit Parikh, in the committee. They were quite disappointed over the recent article writtten by Dr Parikh in which he had said that the tariff for the Dabhol project was not high if seen in the context of increased prices of international fuel and low dispatches by the MSEB from DPC. Dr Parikh had said the MSEB's ability to take all the electricity generated by Dabhol has gone down and its transmission and distribution losses have gone up substantially in recent years. Meanwhile, the maiden meeting of the Godbole committee will take place on February 14 at the MSEB's South Mumbaioffice at 10.30 am.

The MSEB has already sent out intimation in this regard to the committee members.