RS. 9,00,000 CRORE FOR "POWER FOR ALL BY 2012"
The Minister of Power,
Shri Anant G. Geete, has said that the estimated amount of funds
required for additional generation capacity of one lakh MW to
achieve the goal of "Power for All by 2012" would be
of the order of Rs. 9,00,000 Crore. The funding plan for the power
sector during the 10th and 11th Plan period
has already been developed by the Committee constituted by the
Government under the Chairmanship of Dr. Uddesh Kohli. The Committee
has also recommended that the reform process should be rigourously
pursued by all States earnestly, he added.
Shri Geete was
addressing the members of the Consultative Committee of the Members
of Parliament attached to his Ministry last evening.
Speaking on the
activities of the Power Finance Corporation (PFC), which was the
agenda set for the meeting, Shri Geete said that till the end
of 2002-03, the Corporation had sanctioned financial assistance
amounting to Rs. 50,521 crore and disbursed Rs. 31,709 crore.
He informed the Members that PFC’s borrowers were State Power
Utilities including State Electricity Boards, State Generation,
Transmission and Distribution corporations, State Electricity
Departments. The lending portfolio has been broadened to include
the Central Sector, Joint Sector, private sector and the cooperative
sector power utilities, he added.
PFC, set up in
July 1986, provides technical and financial assistance to the
State Governments and State Power Utilities for structural reforms
in the State power sector. PFC has recently introduced a policy
covering complete financial package, funding a major portion of
the investment plan for the balance period of the 10-th Plan linked
to achievement of milestones as covered under the power reforms
under the Operational and Financial Action Plan. The Minister
informed the Members that PFC had discussion with most of the
States and 18 States had agreed to reform their power sector with
technical and financial assistance of PFC.
Commending PFC,
Shri Geete said that the Corporation being a lean organisation
with just 272 employees, the productivity per employee was the
highest among the financial institutions in terms of disbursement
per employee and net profit per employee. He also informed the
Members that over the last five years, PFC was able to maintain
the recovery rate (collection of dues) to almost of the level
of 99 per cent, the rate during 2002-03 being 99.2 per cent. Consistent
with its profits, PFC has been regularly increased its contribution
to the national exchequer by way of Corporate Tax and Dividend.
The Corporate Tax paid during 2002-03 had been Rs. 245.17 crore
and the proposed Dividend for the period is Rs. 235 crore. PFC,
with the active support of the Government, would be the nodal
agency through which all credits to the power sector from bilateral
and multi-lateral sources would be channelled. PFC was endeavouring
to achieve a share of 20 per cent of the country’s power sector
outlay for the period 2002-12, he added.
The Minister
told the Members that PFC had already created a separate "Consultance
Services" unit for power and financial sectors. The range
and scope of consultancy services include restructuring and reform
activities; financial management of resources; project planning
and implementation; human resource development and management
information systems.
Those who participated
in the meeting include S/Shri Shanker Prasad Jaiswal, Raghuvansh
Prasad Singh, Dharam Raj Singh Patel, Subodh Roy, Jai Bhadra Singh,
S. Venugopal, S. Jaipal Reddy, Maheshwar Singh, P.S. Thakor, Smt.
Prabha Rau, Smt. Rita Verma all from Lok Sabha, Smt. Jamna Devi
Barupal, S/Shri Bashistha Narain Singh, Harish Chandra Singh,
all from Rajya Sabha.
