Panel to renegotiate rates with Dabhol

Express News Service

Mumbai, April 30: THE on-going legal wranglings between between the Enron-sponsored Dabhol Power Company and Maharashtra State Electricity Board over payment of dues notwithstanding, the Democratic Front government today set up a high-level committee to renegotiate power tariff with the DPC.

Veteran bureaucrat Madhav Godbole has been reappointed to head the committee, while Deepak Parikh (Housing Development and Finance Corporation), Rajendra Pachauri (Tata Energy Research Institute), E.A.S. Sarma (Former Energy Secretary, Government of India), Kirit Parikh (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research), Vinay Mohan Lal (Energy Secretary, government of Maharashtra), S.K. Srivastava (Finance Secretary, government of Maharashtra), Vinay Bansal (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) and nominee of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India would be the other members.

In his first report, Godbole had recommended that since it was not possible to scrap the project, it would be advisable to renegotiate the power tariff with DPC. The size of the committee had resulted in rumblings in the DF constituents. A section of the constituents were of the view that the committee should be smaller — preferably with less than four members including the chairman. However, ignoring these murmurs of protest, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh decided to set up a nine member committee.

The committee has been entrusted with two objects - negotiate with DPC on direct sale of surplus power to other consumers, including organisations controlled by the Centre and restructuring of the DPC, including reduction in power tariff.