In a major revival package doled out to the beleaguered power company based in the coastal Konkan region, the Maharashtra Government on Tuesday announced a host of concessions to facilitate the restart of the Ratnagiri Gas & Power Pvt ltd (RGPPl) — better known as the Dabhol power project — from November 1.
A week after Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal hinted that the Maharashtra Government would soon come out necessary reliefs for the 1967 MW RGPPl, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Cabinet approved several concessions like exemption in the Value Added Tax (VAT), Octroi, Entry tax and Central Sales Tax (CST) for the procurement of various equipment required for power project and also for the expansion of lNG terminal owned by it. The State cabinet also decided not to draw any power from RGPPl in view of the surplus availability of power in Maharashtra, thus facilitating the latter to sell power generated by it to others.
In couple other relief measures, the State Government announced that it would take up with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission MERC for the waiver in transmission charges to RGPPl and write to the Centre for an early resolution of dispute between MahaVitaran (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company limited and RGPPl on the matters relating to tariff and other issues.