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‘Need
to reduce Dabhol tariff, amend condition of power drawal’
Our Corporate Bureau
Mumbai, Aug 3: The Maharashtra principal secretary
for energy Mr VM Lal on Friday strongly stressed the need
for the reduction of a Dabhol tariff from the present level
of Rs 7 to 8 per unit to Rs 2.50 per unit and amendment to
the contractual condition of drawal of power at baseload in
a serious bid to dispose of excess power in the power deficit
states.
| State may
have to pay Rs 30,000 cr to DPC to end PPA |
| The state government will have to shell
out around Rs 30,000 crore to the DPC if it terminates
the PPA, facilitating its exit from the Dabhol project.
Mr Lal said that it is for Enron to decide whether or
not to continue. If the company pulls out by terminating
the contract, the project will then fall in MSEB’s lap
and payments will have to made to that effect. |
Simultaneously, Mr Lal called for the Centre’s
pro-active role to find a way out in the ongoing Dabhol crisis
and hoped that the Indian financial institutions would prepare
a comprehensive package with regard to the Dabhol project,
its equity and restructuring of finances. Mr Lal was speaking
on ‘Power Sector Scenario in Maharashtra’ organised by the
Indian Merchants’ Chamber.
Mr Lal said that the state and Centre are unanimous on honouring
the foreign loans taken for the implementation of Dabhol project.
“The government of India and government of Maharashtra are
of the unanimous view that these loans be honoured and there
should not be any default,” he added.
Mr Lal, while driving home the point on the Centre’s intervention
to bail out the state, said that Maharashtra State Electricity
Board (MSEB) has already expressed its inability to absorb
2,184 mw Dabhol power as it would have to incur an additional
monthly burden of Rs 540 crore from January 2002. “The power
will be at a high tariff and at 90 per cent availability especially
when its monthly income is around Rs 900 crore,” he added.
Mr Lal said that MSEB, which has repudiated the power purchase
agreement and suspended the power purchase from Dabhol Power
Company (DPC) since May 29, has already incurred a loss of
Rs 1,300 crore on account of purchase of costly Dabhol power
during 2000-01. He added that the purchase of Dabhol power
at 90 per cent plant load factor would not be possible especially
when the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC)
has prescribed the merit order dispatch formula under which
the costliest power would have to be purchased at the last.
Mr Lal hit out at the DPC for its “high-handed American approach”
at the time of issuance of various arbitration and preliminary
termination notices and said that its approach and attitude
have been all the time to put pressure on the government or
MSEB. He admitted that the state had made a mistake of maintaining
a secrecy about the Dabhol project and its documents which
will now be released to a Pune-based non-government organisation
— Prayas — after MERC’s order in this regard.
Mr Lal cited the ‘biggest’ mistake when the previous Shiv
Sena-BJP government cancelled the Dabhol phase-I on August
3, 1995 and later revived it after accepting several conditions
laid down by the DPC.
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