Kathmandu. Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and the office-bearers of independent power producers’ association Nepal (IPPAN) have been engaged in a heated argument. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel met the ippan office-bearers and Minister Poudel to demand the removal of the provision related to take-and-pay of energy from the budget.
Minister Poudel was angry after the power producers threatened to surrender hydro licenses without removing take-and-pay. He said take-and-pay would not be removed and threats from power producers would not affect him. Minister Poudel also said that the proposal of Take and Pay was forwarded only after understanding many things.
Minister Poudel was angry with ippan leadership for spreading a lot of negative propaganda on the issue of take and pay and campaigning against him.
In a meeting held at the Ministry of Finance on Sunday, Minister Poudel reiterated that the budget would not hamper energy production.
IPPAN Chairman Ganesh Karki said that no promoter would go to the Electricity Authority for PPA as the bank would not invest in hydropower projects. He also said that the promoters would return the license of the project to the government if the state returned the amount spent while working with the license for the project study.
Ippan’s senior vice-president Mohan Kumar Dangi said ippan did not have any objection to other issues in the budget, but the word ‘take and pay’ should be removed as the promoters who have been in the pipeline since 2075 bs are very disappointed with the hope of ppa.
IPPAN Vice-President Uttam Vlon said the take-and-pay provision should not be introduced if the private sector does not get business permission. He said that if the private sector gets permission to produce and trade electricity, it can find its own market and build the project, but now that the Electricity Authority is the sole buyer, bringing take and pay is like closing the doors of the private sector.
IPPAN Deputy Secretary General Prakash Dulal said there was no point in doing OR not doing PPA in Take and Pay. What is the point of doing or not doing such a PPA when the bank does not invest? Dulal asked the question.
After listening to the IPPAN officials, Finance Minister Poudel said that he had no intention to discourage the private sector and he would take initiative to solve any problem in the construction of the project.
The promoters had expressed strong objection after the budget released on May 29 stated that electricity from river flow-based projects would be purchased only as per take-and-pay provisions to adjust production and consumption.
Ippan has also met the Energy Minister, Finance Minister and former Prime Minister on this issue and said that it will have a far-reaching impact on the energy sector.
More than 350 projects of 17,000 MW capacity, which are currently in the study stage and have applied for PPA, are flowing in the river, the future of these projects is in doubt. Rs 66 billion spent on the study of these projects has also been submerged.
Energy Minister Deepak Khadka has said that the Ministry of Energy has not taken the proposal and he has a problem with it.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्