Renaming the Clean Energy Cess as Clean Environment Cess, the government today proposed to raise the cess on coal, lignite and peat from the current Rs 200 a tonne to Rs 400 per tonne.
"I propose to rename the Clean Energy Cess levied on coal, lignite and peat as Clean Environment Cess and simultaneously increase its rate from Rs 200 per tonne to Rs 400 per tonne," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.
The government had increased the Clean Energy Cess from Rs 100 to 200 per tonne of coal to finance clean environment initiatives for 2015-16.
(REOPENS DCM84)
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Commenting on the Union Budget proposal 2016-17, Essar Power Ltd MD Sushil Maroo said, "In my opinion the Union Budget 2016 is indeed good for the power sector, especially in light of government's commendable 100 per cent rural electrification target of May 1, 2018".
He added that on the flip side, there is the increase in the Clean Energy Cess from Rs 200 to Rs 400 per metric tonne.
"However, the impact of this step has yet to be seen; we estimate an increase of 10 paise per unit in power tariffs," he said.
