PowerMin plan expenditure up by 15% for 2010-11

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today proposed a higher plan expenditure of Rs 10,630 crore for the Power Ministry during 2010-11, 15 per cent up from Rs 9,230 crore for the current financial year.

The allocation is, however, 26 per cent less than the ministry's demand of Rs 14,430.50 crore.

While presenting the Budget in Parliament, Mukherjee said, "I have more than doubled the Plan allocation for power sector from Rs 2,230 core to Rs 5,130 crore in 2010-11. This does not include allocation for RGGVY (rural electrification scheme, which is part of Bharat Nirman)."

In fact, the demand from the ministry for Plan expenditure of Rs 14,430.50 crore was itself slightly less than what was demanded by power PSUs like NTPC, NHPC, Power Grid Corp and Power Finance Corporation. They had asked for a Plan expenditure of Rs 14,469.42 crore.

For the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir, it is proposed to set up solar, small hydro and micro power projects at a cost of about Rs 500 crore.

However, the infrastructure industry expressed disappointment over three per cent increase in Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) from 15 per cent. MAT is paid by the company on its book profits.

"This increase in MAT is the biggest negative for the core sector in the General Budget," GVK Power official said.