Bangladesh will start receiving 100 MW of power from Tripura's 726 MW gas based thermal power project at Palatana in Gomati district from March 23, a state minister today said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina would jointly inaugurate the export of power through videoconferencing, Tripura Power minister Manik Dey said.
"Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has also invited Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to remain present at the function," Dey told reporters.
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Pricing of one unit of power was fixed at Rs 5.50 during a meeting between Dey and Bangladesh Minister of State for Power, Nasirul Hamid on January 9 last in Dhaka.
Bangladesh cooperated with India for using its waterways for transportation of heavy machines from Kolkata to Agartala before installation of the Palatana power project in Gomati district, about 60 km from here.
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited erected 47 km long 400 KV double circuit transmission lines from Suryamaninagar Power Grid, near here to Comilla in Bangladesh.
The 726 MW gas based thermal power project at Palatana in Gomati district would be run by ONGC Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC).
The Minister also informed about the new explanation
about treatment of tax on natural gas supplied to power plants and other industries will result in procedural improvement and avoid ambiguity.
The proposed explanation to Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax in Budget says, "Where the gas sold or purchased and transported through a common carrier pipeline or any other common transport distribution system becomes co-mingled and fungible with other gas in the pipeline for systems and such gas is introduced into the pipeline or system is one state and taken out from the pipeline in another state, such sale or purchase of gas shall be deemed to be a movement of goods from one state to another."
Later explaining it, the Minister said that only 2 per cent central sales tax is charged on that gas no matter if it passes through which states.
The ministry is implementing a scheme of utilisation of gas based power generation capacity which envisages provision of subsidy to discoms to procure power from stranded and domestic gas based power plants.
The minister also lauded the additional depreciation benefit of 20 per cent for transmission companies from FY18, which will be provided on the actual cost of new machinery or plant acquired and installed in previous year.
He said that this will be beneficial for Power Grid and other transmission companies and will help increase capacity at lower cost.
The minister also informed that the Plan outlay for the Power Ministry has been increased from budgeted Rs 6,800 crore for the current fiscal to Rs 12,200 crore in 2016-17, mainly due to enhancement in budget allocation for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Integrated Power Development Scheme and Power System Development Fund (PSDF).
PSDF scheme provides subsidy for buying imported gas for stranded and domestic gas based power projects.
The minister also said that the government will go in appeal against the WTO's panel ruling that has stated that the country's power purchase agreements with solar firms were "inconsistent" with international norms.
The rulings of the WTO's dispute settlement panel can be challenged in the WTO's Appellate body. India has about three months time to appeal in the Appellate Body.
