The electricity bill is expected to burn another hole in consumers’ pocket as power tariff will go up by 3-4 paisa per unit with the Budget announcing coal cess of Rs 50 per tonne.
“An increase of Rs 50 per tonne in coal price would definitely increase cost of power generated by 3-4 paisa per unit,” a government power generation company official said.
The National Clean Energy Fund is being created through the additional cess on coal for funding research in and innovative clean energy projects.
Presenting the Budget 2010-11 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “To build the corpus of the National Clean Energy Fund announced earlier, I propose to levy a clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a nominal rate of Rs 50 per tonne.”
“This cess will also apply to imported coal,” he added. After last year’s coal-price hike by Coal India Ltd (CIL), the domestic fuel cost is currently hovering in the range of Rs 448-2,500 per tonne.
“There are many areas of the country where pollution levels have reached alarming proportions. While we must ensure that the principle of polluter pays remains the basic guiding criteria for pollution management, we must also give a positive thrust to development of clean energy,” Mukherjee said.
Coal, he said, is the “mainstay of India’s energy sector and 75 per cent of the power generation is currently coal-based.”