NEW DELHI: The government will shortly take steps to address all fiscal and fuel hurdles faced by coal and natural gas based power plants so that people get affordable and uninterrupted supply, Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters in a hurriedly called news conference late on Wednesday which was also attended by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
"The government will look at all possible options to provide fuel to power projects with an aim to keep tariff low for the utilities and end users," said Goyal. He said banks are on board to discuss the possibilities of relaxing lending norms to power sector.
"We are in discussions with banks to extend the term of payment for power plants to prevent them from turning non performing assets," said Goyal. The ministers held meetings with stakeholders in the power sector, who are facing an acute fuel shortage and are under pressure from banks to repay loans. "Today's meeting was a precursor to final decisions which will be taken very fast," he said.
The government has already announced plan to auction coal blocks and hopes to double the country's coal output to meet the fuel shortage. Thousands of megawatts of new power generation capacity is idling or operating at suboptimal capacity because Coal India, the state monopoly, could not keep pace with rising demand.
Goyal stated that the government will try to increase domestic gas and coal output for power projects. "We have looked at all possible options to address the problems of gas-based power projects. We have already initiated the coal block auction process and are looking at natural gas-based plants to utilise stranded capacity with an aim to keep the tariff low," Goyal said.
The power sector is also waiting for a financial package as companies are unable to repay loans because they don't get fuel to operate their plants. In some cases, plant construction could not be completed because banks are reluctant to lend to power projects. A panel of experts has recommended a series of measures to help the sector. The government is working on big-ticket financial reforms for about 1,30,000 mw thermal and hydropower power plants worth over Rs 6,00,000 crore that are hit by severe funds crunch while continuing to face cost and time overruns.
No comments:
Post a Comment