'Centre's budget to burden state power firms'

Gujarat's power companies will have to face increased financial burden to the tune of Rs 573.59 crore due to some of the tax proposals in union budget 2010-11. This was stated by Gujarat's minister of state for energy and petrochemicals, Saurabh Patel, in the state assembly today.

Speaking on the budgetary demands of the energy department, the minister said that the Centre's has proposed to levy custom duty at the rate of 16 per cent on electricity purchased from power stations in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) with retrospective effect from June 2009.

"As a result, state power firms will incurr additional cost of 45 paise per unit translating into financial burden of Rs 315 crore," he said.

 

Patel also informed the assembly that increase in standard excise duty from 8 to 10 per cent and Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) to 18 per cent from 15 per cent would burden power companies by 116 crore and Rs 12.95 crore respectively. "Cess of Rs 50 per metric tonne on coal produced in India will hike the cost of state power companies by Rs 142.52 crore," the minister added.

Meanwhile, the minister revealed that Gujarat would see an increase of 3583 Mw in its installed capacity for power generation, which is currently at 11711 Mw. The Gujarat government has planned two new gas-based power plants with a capacity of 1000 Mw each in the state this fiscal. The state government intends to set up 140 sub-stations during 2010-11.