The ongoing coal mines auction will help provide cheaper power to the common man in a sustained manner rather than the practice of states subsidising power, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday in an indirect reference to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) endeavour of slashing power tariffs in the national capital region (NCR) by 50 per cent.
“One way by which people want to provide cheaper electricity is by the state subsidising it. A state subsidy really means that you will have to tax people more in order to provide something free to some other people. Is that a sustainable causeIJ” he wondered, taking an apparent dig at AAP-led Delhi Government’s step.
Taking the first step towards slashing power tariff by 50 per cent, the AAP-led Delhi Government on Monday had directed its Finance and Power departments to immediately send their proposals for its implementation.
Meanwhile Jaitley, who will present the Union Budget in the lok Sabha on February 28, said that the India is better placed to provide investment opportunity to the global and domestic investors.
“The starting point of all this has to be the credibility of the Indian economy, the faith of people in the Indian economy and our ability to provide opportunities to investors. From that point of view, our own systems have to tune a lot and for each one of these, power is essential,” he said while addressing the valedictory session of the three-day renewable energy conference ‘Re-Invest 2015’.
Jaiprakash Power Ventures win Amelia North coal mine
leaving behind 10 companies including the likes of Adani Power, Essar Power and BAlCO, Jaiprakash Power Ventures on Tuesday bagged the Amelia (North) mine in Madhya Pradesh quoting Rs712 per tonne, the highest among all the bidders.
“Jaiprakash Power the highest bidder at (Rs) 712 (a tonne) for Amelia North,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted. Two other blocks namely Ardhagram in West Bengal and Chotia in Chhattisgarh were also up for bidding during the day.
The 10 companies in the race for Amelia (North) mine apart from Jaiprakash Power Ventrues ltd were - Adani Power, Bharat Aluminium Co ltd (BAlCO), Essar Power M P ltd, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy ltd, GVK Power Goindwal Sahib ltd, Jindal Power ltd, JSW Energy ltd, KSK Mahanadi Power Company, RattanIndia Power ltd and Reliance Geothermal Power Pvt ltd.
The mine has extractable reserves of 70.28 million tonnes. The other two mines - Ardhagram and Chotia for which bidding is on, have extractable reserves of 19.29 million tonnes and 13.57 million tonnes respectively.