CONSTRUCT THE BEST QUALITY ROADS TO SAVE LIVES: NITIN GADKARI
Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways And Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, on Saturday called upon the stakeholders in road construction to accord top priority to saving lives by taking measures to prevent road accidents. The minister asked engineers, construction firms and other stakeholders to play their respective roles in ensuring best quality roads adhering to all safety norms. Addressing the 77th Annual Session of the Indian Road Congress (IRC) here, he voiced concern over the loss of 1.5 lakh lives in 5 lakh road accidents every year in India. Gadkari said that out of the 52 lakh kilometers of road length in the country, the national highways are just 96,000 kilometers. While being just 2 per cent of the total roads, national highways 40 per cent of the total traffic. The minister said that the first decision which was taken by his ministry was to increase the length of national highways to 2 lakh kilometers. “We have already declared 1,65,000 km as national highway and we will be adding another 35,000 km in the coming days,” he said. Gadkari claimed that when he took over as the minister, 403 projects worth Rs 3.75 lakh crore were stalled due to delays in land acquisition and environmental and forest clearances. He said the work on 95 per cent of the projects was resumed with new Detailed Project Reports (DPRs). The DPRs, he said, had to be perfect and prepared with a vision and in tune with the 21st century requirements. In the past, bridges and underpasses were cancelled to save money, which led to accidents. The minister stressed the need for innovation and research to bring down the cost of construction and improve the quality of roads. Jason Spezza Authentic Jersey
Activists ask Govt to accept Truckers’ offer to pay entire toll collection in advance, remove toll plazas
A group of activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Mumbai and Pune have come together to support the demand from All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) to change the mode of toll collection and provide them with Annual Toll Permit (ATP) with upfront payment. The AIMTC, whose representatives met the activists Monday morning, said, they had met several senior ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and expressed their willingness to compensate the government for the entire toll collection at toll plazas of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) across the country on upfront basis. They had made this offer in order to reduce the huge losses suffered by transporters because of delays at each toll collection centre. The AIMTC is on record to say that this will allow the government not to collect toll from private cars and other vehicles. This proposal fully supports the drive towards a digital and cashless economy initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It gives the government time to put in place effective Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) facilities, as per the report of the apex committee on ETC, 2008. The present process of collecting toll is not transparent and prone to corruption and malpractices by toll collectors and concessionaires. Based on a study done by the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata in 2016, frequent stoppages at toll barriers result in a loss of man-hours and fuel worth a whopping Rs1.45 lakh crore per year. As against this, the toll revenue collected by the government in 2014-15 was a mere Rs14,717 crore (this information has been obtained under the Right to Information act and from the NHAI/Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) website). Reports by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) and the Principal Accountant General have repeatedly pointed to the mismanagement of crores of rupees in administration and collection of tolls. The activists were disturbed to learn from Raman Khosla of the Maharashtra Rajya Truck Tempo Tanker Bus Vahatuk Mahasangh about a new report from Mumbai quoting experts, who studied vehicle movement on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and Mumbai–Pune Expressway, which states that there was a saving of Rs3 crore worth of fuel in the 10 day toll waiver from 9th November to 18 November 2016. The group of activists include Sanjay Shirodkar, Vivek Velankar, Shriniwas Ghanekar, Anil Galgali, Pravin Wategaonkar, Sucheta Dalal, Mahesh Jadhav, Ashok Datar, Ashok Ravat, AV Shenoy, and Jagdeep Desai among others. “Considering all the above mentioned points, we strongly demand that the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Minister of Road Transport and NITI Aayog should accept the AIMTC’s offer. It will help mitigate the hardship caused to people and businesses after demonetisation and reduce the loss to the economy in terms of manpower and fuel,” the activists said. Ryan Allen Jersey
NICE gets stay on govt notice over toll collection
The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) has been successful in getting a stay from a court on the notice served by the state government on it, seeking why toll collection on the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor should not be stopped. According to official sources, the government had served a notice to NICE, after the Legislature committee report on the reported violation of the framework agreement by the company, was tabled in the Assembly during the recently concluded winter session of the legislature in Belagavi. However, NICE has been quick to outsmart the government, the sources added. The government is now working towards getting the stay vacated. The committee had noted that NICE had violated the framework agreement between itself and the Public Works Department (PWD) by collecting toll, without even providing cemented roads or facilities such as drinking water and toilets for road users. Despite this, NICE has been collecting higher toll than its competitors, the report added. The report said that NICE has collected Rs 1,375 crore through toll, from 2008 onwards. The committee had recommended that the amount collected should be recovered by the government, and that toll collection stopped immediately. The committee has also recommended the government to order a CBI probe into the matter. The report is now before the high power committee headed by the chief secretary, which is required to recommend action to be initiated by the state Cabinet. The chief secretary has sougth opinion from the PWD. The sources, however, said that the committee report might not see light of the day, owing to the pressure from an influential minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet. Leon Hall Authentic Jersey
GMR seeks Rs 8545 cr power project debt recast, Axis lead bank
GMR Infrastructure Ltd has approached Axis Bank and 16 other lenders for strategic recast of the Rs 8545.85 crore debt of its special purpose vehicle operating the 1,370 MW thermal power plant at Raikheda in Chhattisgarh, an official familiar with the development told Moneycontrol. The project, comprising two units of 685 MW each, was delayed by two years, the commissioning of the project finally happening on March 31 this year. The plant has been plagued by cost overruns, delay in commissioning and lower load flood factor resulting in weak cash flows. This has stretched the start date of the repayment of interest, now expected to start only in February. A questionnaire on the matter e-mailed to GMR remained unanswered. The SPV — GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd — is a fully-owned subsidiary of GMR Energy Ltd, the power sector arm of the Delhi-headquartered infrastructure major. The recast will result in the lenders converting part of the company’s debt into equity and the promoters giving up majority stake in the subsidiary, the official said. GMR has appointed SBI Capital Market Services Ltd as advisor on the debt restructuring plan. “SBI Caps is now preparing the corrective action plan. If all parties finally agree on implementing the scheme, the lenders will have to find a buyer within 18 months of taking over the project,” the official said. Including cost overruns, the total project cost has ballooned to Rs 11,561 crore, significantly higher than Rs 8,290 crore that were budgeted first. Power Finance Corp Ltd followed Axis in disbursing the largest amount to the project. Axis Bank gave the company Rs 1,092 crores in fund and non-fund-based lending. PFC lent Rs 1,090 crores for the project. Besides Axis and PFC, Bank of India, IIFCL UK and Life Insurance Corp of India Ltd are the other names in a list of 17 that have lent to the project. Bank of India has lent Rs 769.73 crores, IIFCL UK $101 mln and LIC Rs 481 crores. The company doesn’t have a long term power purchase pact for the plant yet, he said. While the project is now commissioned, the tough part now is to make it viable for the long-term. The company has two captive coal mines to fuel the project – Talabira-I and Ganeshpur. According to the official, something was that also pointed out earlier by rating agency ICRA Ltd, reserves of Talabira-I coal mine will be able to keep the plant running for not more than two years from now. In such a scenario, GMR has to start mining operations at Ganeshpur. The promoters have so far put in Rs 2,720 crore as equity with the power plant still needing equity of Rs 114 crore and the associated coal mine blocks requiring another Rs 94 crore, the official said. “Only on strength of Talabira, they can’t operate the plant and it is unlikely GMR will be able to start mining at Ganeshpur as it gave a negative bid for the mine when the auctions were conducted in 2015. This means it agreed to pay to the government for mining. If that doesn’t happen, the company’s bank guarantee of Rs 295 crore will be forfeited,” the official said. Jaron Brown Womens Jersey
Govt readying to set up hydel project in elephant corridor
The state government is gearing up to set up a mini hydel project next to the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, an elephant corridor, even as cases of jumbos straying out of forest areas in search of water and food and getting killed are on the rise. The proposed mini-hydel project will violate the directions issued by the Karnataka High Court in 2008 that no projects can come up in and around elephant corridors. Taking suo motu action to ensure that there is no destruction of elephant corridors, the court had formed the elephant task force. The proposed project near Gaganachukki-Bharachukki waterfalls in Malavalli taluk of Mandya district was opposed by several agencies in the past. However, the government now seems to be keen on reviving the proposal. It recently asked senior officials of Forest department to visit the proposed project spot and submit a report. Under ‘pressure from political bosses,’ a team visited the area. The project is just 200 metres from the waterfalls. “Based on the recommendations of the state government, a committee comprising Principal Chief Conservator of Forests P Suresh and B J Hosmath and other senior officials visited the place. The committee members were directed to visit the location and submit a project feasibility report,” a Forest department official told DH. “The committee has inspected the place. It will hold a meeting in three to four days. Based on the recommendations made at the meeting, a report will be prepared and submitted to the government,” the official added. “It is unfortunate that when there is water crisis in Karnataka and, man-animal conflicts are increasing, the government is pressing for power generation projects on forest borders. Increasing urbanisation has led to the death of three elephants on the outskirts of Bengaluru in the last 10 days,’’ an official said. The project, experts opine, will not only lead to further depletion of water table but also curtail water supply to Bengaluru. In the past, the hydel project had met with opposition from many quarters, including the State Wildlife Board. Cricketer and former vice chairman of Wildlife Board Anil Kumble had rejected the government’s proposal. Kumble is still a member of the board. The board had also pointed that the project will lead to man-elephant conflict. In 2015, the secretary, Forest department, too had opposed the project stating that it will destruct wildlife habitat. In September 2016, a wildlife board meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too had refused to give permission for the project. Jameis Winston Womens Jersey
Power discom DHBVN registers Rs 78 crore profit for first time
Power distribution company Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has recorded a profit for first time ever since its inception in July 1999. From losses of more than ? 2,088 crore in 2014, the discom registered a profit of ?78 crore in the first half of the current financial year. Now, DHBVN officials aim to double the profit by the end of current financial year. In comparison, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has reported a loss of ?1,233 crore in the first half of financial year 2016-17 against a loss of ?336 crore in the last financial year, reported an analysis by Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC). DHBVN has been reeling under losses worth crores ever since it was created along with UHBVN and two corporations – Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC). DHBVN supplies power to 11 districts of southern Haryana and has always recorded losses worth ?2,000 crore or more due to electricity theft, non-payment of dues, transmission and distribution losses and increasing fuel surcharge. A half-yearly analysis by REC, under Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), has revealed that DHBVN reported a remarkable achievement with a turnaround from losses as steep as ?471 crore in last financial year to a profit of more than ?78 crore. The review was conducted to ascertain the progress of various major operational and financial indicators as per UDAY on the basis of data submitted by discoms and visits by UDAY teams. The analysis report, released early this month, pointed out that the state incurred a loss of ?815 crore in financial year 2015-16 for both discoms combined and gave a loss projection of ?2,911 crore and ?1,878 crore for 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively. The review commended DHVBN for turnaround from loss to profit. “We focused on replacing old and defective electric meters, placing meters outside buildings, meter sealing, check on thefts, increasing number of feeders, recovery of pending amounts and controlling transmission and distribution losses through various means. We hope to double the profit by the end of this financial year,” said Arun Kumar Verma, managing director, DHBVN. REC also observed that DHBVN has improved on billing efficiency and reduced aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses while UHBVN is falling short on this front as well. In its review, the REC observed that a major cause of concern in Haryana was high average cost of supply (ACS) that is ?8.37 per unit in current financial year as against the national average of ?6.66 per unit. The analysis observed high incidents of electricity theft in the state as the cost of energy not billed (energy lost) is ?1.85 per unit.
DERC seeks opinion on revising charges for migrating customers
In the draft order issued this week for consumers opting for open access, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has modified various charges. These include subsidy charge, wheeling and transmission charges, and additional surcharge. This revision will benefit those who wish to source power from another distribution utility than those operating in their jurisdiction. Consumers, discoms and expert bodies have been asked to submit their suggestions on the draft by January 20. The draft aims to ensure that low-end consumers do not get burdened with higher tariff on account of high-end consumers opting out of their network. Hence, all those opting out would be paying some charges to the home discom for crosssubsidising domestic consumers. The charges payable to Delhi discoms differ as per category and the discom. For Tata Power Delhi, industrial consumers will pay approximately 165 paise/unit, DMRC 136 paise/unit and domestic consumers 5-11 paise/unit as cross subsidy charges. For BRPL, the charges are about 166 paise/unit for industrial consumers, while DIAL and DJB would pay about 166-183 paise/unit. Industrial consumers under BYPL have to pay up to 175 paise /unit, non-domestic 199 paise /unit and DMRC and DJB up to 187 paise/ unit. The order also mentions various unresolved issues that have not been addressed in previous orders, including, revision of 1MW cap for open access, provision for seeking open access for varied quantum during the day, lack of provisions to provide compensation to consumers who are unable to draw power due to failure of distribution network and no provision for imposing penalty on violators. For the period an open access customer does not have supply, distributors will have to compensate him at the lowest average rate he pays for that period. DERC also makes it clear that a discom can’t resort to load shedding of its existing consumers to provide the migrated ones. As per the national tariff policy, open access has to be encouraged to bring more competition in the power sector and end monopoly of the private discoms. The computation of crosssubsidy surcharge needs to be done in a manner that while it compensates the distribution licensee, it does not constrain competition through open access. Justin Abdelkader Womens Jersey
Thermal power plants’ capacity utilisation to drop to 48% by 2022
All coal-based thermal power plants need to brace for a drastic fall in capacity utilisation to as low as 48% by 2022, as additional non-thermal electricity generation capacities come on stream, the Central Electricity Authority has warned. At that level of utilisation, they may lose the ability to run at a technically viable level and might find it extremely difficult to service debts turning into non-preforming assets for lenders. The CEA, in its Draft National Electricity Plan, has predicted that by 2022 many plants may get partial or no schedule of generation at all meaning that many of these thermal power plants may have to be kept idle for lack of demand. According to the CEA, the expected installed capacity from different fuel types at the end of 2021-22 in base case works out to 523 gigawatts, including 50 GW of coal-based capacity currently under construction. “In order to accommodate high quantum of renewable energy into the grid, thermal plants are likely to run at low plant load factor (capacity utilisation) in future,” it said. In fact, it suggested that a market mechanism through regulatory intervention needs to be evolved so that the owners of thermal plants are able to recoup the investment and, at the same time, customers are not unnecessarily burdened with high tariff. “Technical viability of plants goes for a toss if they run under 55% capacity utilisation — a fact which is recognised by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. It is detrimental for the plant boilers and leads to drastic reduction in plant life,” said Ashok Khurana, secretarygeneral of the Association of Power Producers. “These plants are designed to run at very high capacity utilisation, around 85%. When they run, much below the full load, it consumes more coal, leading to under-recovery of energy charges, as regulations do not provide for this.” Plants without power purchase agreement are in for trouble, said Sabyasachi Majumdar, senior vice president at ICRA Ratings. “Reduction in capacity utilisation leads to a decline in revenue income for the plant. At less than 60% capacity utilisation, the margin, which would otherwise provide for operating costs including interest cost, other than coal costs, would get wiped off. These plants are headed for trouble.” As of October 2016, the national capacity utilisation for these units declined to 60% against 67% a year earlier. Utilisation of plants used to be around 80% in 2007-08. Seth Joyner Jersey
Airlines may have to bear additional tax burden of Rs 15,000 crore under GST
India’s aviation industry may have to bear an additional tax burden of up to Rs 15,000 crore annually once the Goods and Services Tax is implemented, top industry executives have told the finance ministry. Under the current indirect tax regime, the industry has to pay only about Rs 3,600 crore every year, according to industry estimates, while its annual revenue is pegged at Rs 60,000 crore. The additional tax burden may push airlines, most of which have turned profitable, into losses again, coming as it does at a time when global fuel prices are flaring up. In a meeting with revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Saturday, the airline executives said the industry will have to bear additional taxes on ticket sales, import of aircraft and aircraft parts, lease rentals, and transfer of spares and goods within the country. The executives have also asked for the fuel to be brought under the GST regime–petroleum products are outside its ambit in the proposition–so airlines can claim input credit on the same. But the finance ministry is unlikely to agree to that demand for now. Among those who attended the meeting were members of the Federation of Indian Airlines – IndiGo CEO Aditya Ghosh, SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh, Jet Airways director-finance Ravichandran Narayan and GoAir general manager-finance Joyakesh Podder – along with executives from national carrier Air India. “We have raised very serious concerns. It will be a massive burden for the industry, which is already operating in a very tough environment,” one of the executives who attended the meeting said on condition of anonymity. The industry submitted a letter to the revenue secretary detailing its concerns. ET has seen a copy of the letter. Earlier this year, the government proposed a historic overhaul of the taxation structure in India, merging most of the existing indirect taxes into a single system – GST. ET had on August 5 first reported on the concerns this would create for the domestic aviation industry. Currently, an airline needs to pay 6% service tax on economy class tickets and 9% on business class, a relaxation on the usual charge of 15%. No such abatement is likely to be available under the GST regime. This will mean an additional indirect tax burden of over Rs 7,000 crore, said an executive, who was present in the meeting In its letter to the revenue secretary, the industry said “the government should maintain current abated tax rate of 6% of economy class and 9% for business class, without any restriction on input credit or categorise airline passenger services under the lowest tax band under GST regime (viz 12%)” . Import of aircraft and aircraft parts are currently fully exempted from basic customs duty and countervailing duty (CVD) as well as special additional duty (SAD). There is no service tax on operating lease of aircraft, neither is there a sales tax or value-added tax on purchase or lease of planes. Under the new regime, according to the letter, CVD and SAD will be subsumed under GST for all imports. This means purchase or lease of aircraft parts will attract GST of 18%, the letter said. This will translate into GST liability of Rs 60 crore on procurement of one aircraft. India’s airlines – led by IndiGo – lease more than 60 planes a year. The annual additional burden will thus be about Rs 4,000 crore. Besides, there will an additional annual impact of Rs 2,000 crore on lease rentals, the letter said. Yet another impact will be on stock transfer. “If a plane is grounded in Chennai and I have to fly in spares from Bengaluru, that will be taxed,” said the executive cited earlier. The total burden will be Rs 1,800 crore. Airlines are also worried about compliance requirements and massive additions to paperwork. “Since airlines operate across the country, we will now have to file multiple tax returns in each state. Also, for each transfer of stock we have to file a different invoice, something we don’t do now. This is extremely cumbersome and will increase paperwork by 100 times,” the executive said.
KQ gets big lift from increased India flights deal
National carrier Kenya Airways has received a big boost from the signing of an agreement that gives it the right to introduce seven more weekly flights to India, one of Kenya’s strongest trade partners. A communiqué from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation indicates that the two countries recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) allowing carriers from both countries to get into more codeshare agreements. India is one of Kenya’s biggest trade partners with imports from the Asian country valued at Sh253 billion last year. “As per the mandate given India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, a MoU was signed, whereby seven additional frequencies were allowed to both sides,” the communiqué stated. “Hyderabad (the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangan) was allowed as an additional point of call on request by Kenyan side. Domestic codeshare was agreed to from any four points by both sides.” Kenya also agreed to grant one additional intermediate and beyond point with full 5th freedom rights in Africa to India, the statement further stated. Julio Jones Authentic Jersey