Tax waiver plan for power scheme

The Telegraph, 23rd July, 2008


The Orissa government is contemplating to exempt materials required for execution of Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana of entry tax and VAT.
Finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, who chaired a meeting today in this regard, agreed to the proposal submitted by the energy department to this effect. Energy minister Surya Narayan Patro, who was also present at the meeting, said the proposal would be placed before the chief minister before final approval by the state cabinet.
Under the RGGVY, 32 lakh families living below the poverty line would be provided electricity connection free of cost. About 60,000 habitations across Orissa would be electrified under the scheme.
Meanwhile, the Centre has approved rural electrification projects in 12 more districts under the scheme.
Deogarh, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Bolangir, Bargarh, Koraput, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Boudh and Sonepur are the districts that would be receiving the Centre boost.
Earlier, seven districts had been covered under the central scheme.
While Angul, Nayagarh, Ganjam and Gajapati had been selected in phase-1, three more districts (Puri, Jajpur and Balasore) had been taken up in phase-II.
The government has submitted detailed project reports for all the 30 districts with a total project cost of Rs 3582.19 crore. So far, funds to the tune of Rs 357.06 crore have been released, sources said.
The government has signed MoUs with three central public sector undertakings — National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) — for the implementation of the scheme after the private power distribution companies failed to deliver the goods.
According to a review, electrification of only 15 villages belonging to four phase-I districts has been completed. Work is yet to start in Balasore and Jajpur, while work is on in 506 out of targeted 2,344 non-electrified villages.
Recently, the state had drawn flak from the Union energy secretary during a regional conference here for the tardy progress.
Last week, chief secretary Ajit Tripathy, who chaired the meeting of state-level co-ordination committee on RGGVY, asked the district administrations concerned and private power distribution companies to help the central PSUs to speed up the work.
The state divisional forest officers were directed to expedite forest clearance for the projects.