Government may fix additional power target for 12th Plan at 1 lakh MW
The UP government had challenged a July 26, 2011 order of the high court which granted stay on levy of Rs 724 crore as VAT for sale of the gas during 2009-2010.
The government may fix the power capacity addition target at around 1,00,000 MW for the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012-2017).
The Power Ministry had proposed a capacity addition target of 1,00,000 MW to the Planning Commission, which is likely to accept the proposal.
"Final call would be taken by National Development Council, it may be between 90,000 MW and 1,00,000 MW," B K Chaturvedi, Member Planning Commission, told reporters on the sidelines of the India Energy Congress.
The government had set a target of 78,577 MW during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, which was curtailed to 62,000 MW by the Planning Commission in its mid-term review citing coal shortage and environment reasons.
According to sources, the Power Ministry may only be able to achieve up to 52,000 MW capacity addition by March, 2012.
The government expects to see a power capacity addition of about 52,000 MW in the current plan period ending March this year.
"The capacity addition in the 11th Plan period is expected to be about 52,000 MW," Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said at the meet.
He said that there could be another 10,000 MW capacity coming from captive power sources.
"So far in the 11th Plan period we have seen a capacity addition of 47,000 MW," Power Secretary P Uma Shankar said.
Initially, the capacity addition target was set at 78,000 MW for the 11th Plan period (2007-2012). Later, the target was revised to 62,000 MW.
A raft of issues, including acute fuel shortage and environmental hurdle are hurting the power sector, which in turn is affecting the capacity addition plan.