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| Taj's water resources act backfires, NHPC to pay PHE from PDD's kitty | | Rob peter to pay Paul! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Jammu, Dec 28: PHE Minister Taj Mohiuddin's much trumpeted move to recover water usage charges for running power projects in the state from National Hydroelectric Project Corporation (NHPC) has backfired.
NHPC is all set to officially recover crores of money which it would be paying to PHE ministry as water usage charges from the beneficiaries i.e. states which are purchasing power from NHPC-run hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir. These include Jammu and Kashmir, which has been purchasing bulk of power from NHPC through Power Development Department (PDD).
Hence, PHE ministry would recover what PDD would pay NHPC on yearly basis. For this, experts say that PDD would have to raise tariff to make good of the unnecessary burden which PHE ministry has forced it to share with NHPC. Armed with the order of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), NHPC has intimated J&K government to be ready for paying more for getting required hydroelectric power.
CERC has allowed National Hydroelectric Project Corporation (NHPC) to recover water usage charges and licence fee from the beneficiaries and stated that in the event, NHPC succeeds in the writ petition which it has filed vide OWP No.604/2011 before High Court and wherein it has challenged the act of PHE department, the user charges and licence fees shall be refunded to the beneficiaries.
CERC passed this order on October 21, 2011 in response to miscellaneous petition no. 106/2011 filed by NHPC seeking reimbursement of water usage charges for generation of electricity and levy of license fee by the State of J&K under Water Resources (Regulation and Management) Act-2010 from the beneficiaries which among others includes Power Development Department (PDD).
CERC has further held out that under the provisions of the Water Resources (Regulation and Management) Act-2010, it is mandatory for any user to obtain a licence for use of water and to pay licence fee. Without obtaining a licence, CERC has said that NHPC would not be able to use water of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and generate electricity to supply to the beneficiaries to meet its contractual obligations under the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
Hence, the CERC has ordered that licence fee paid by the petitioner to the government of J&K in respect of the four generating stations namely Salal (690 MW), Uri (480 MW), Dulhasti (390 MW), Sewa-II (120 MW), on ownership basis with effect from November 1987, July 1997, April 2007 and July 2010 respectively needs to be reimbursed. J&K government alongwith other beneficiaries had requested CERC to disallow the billing and reimbursement of licence fee by NHPC from them.
CERC disallowed their request and asked them to pay NHPC. Before the CERC, NHPC stated that annual impact of water usage charges for four hydro power stations would be around Rs. 545.94 crore i.e. Salal: Rs. 331.32 crores; Uri: Rs.109.95 crores; Dulhasti: Rs. 95.35 crores and SEWA II: Rs. 9.33 crores. NHPC had further said that a licence is required to be obtained from the government of Jammu and Kashmir for which a licence fee of Rs. 5 lakh is to be paid for each hydro power station.
After being notified by the PHE ministry, NHPC had in the petition stated that it had brought the issue to the notice of the beneficiaries in the meeting of Northern Regional Power Committee held on 24-12-2010 and 28-2-2011 and to the notice of Union Ministry of Power vide its letter dated 17-2-2011. It had further submitted that the expenditure on water usage charges and licence fees on actual basis be allowed to be reimbursed by beneficiaries in proportion to their annual capacity charges.
During the course of arguments, a particular power utility had submitted that water usage charge imposed under the J&K Act are inherently embedded in water royalty included in 12 percent free power being received by the state government from each of the hydro generating stations of the NHPC. The utility had observed that levying of water usage charge separately by PHE ministry of Jammu and Kashmir would mean illegally double charging for said commodity. |
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