IPPs to govt: Revoke decision to increase survey licence fees
KATHMANDU, MAR 23 -
Independent power producers on Friday asked the government to revoke its earlier decision of increasing the survey licence fee.
During a meeting with newly appointed Energy Minister Umakant Jha, the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) requested for the scrapping of the decision stating that it was detrimental to the development of the hydropower sector in the country.
The private sector developers have been criticising the government’s decision to increase the survey licence fee for hydropower projects of all capacity.
On October 1, 2012, the Department of Electricity Development (DoED) had introduced a new licence fees by publishing the decision in Nepal Gazette. The decision was made with a view to discourage the prevailing trend of holding license but without intention to develop the projects.
As per the revised rate, a survey licence for hydropower projects with a production capacity between 1 MW and 5 MW will has has been fixed at Rs 1 million, Rs 2 million for projects with 5 MW to 10 MW, and Rs 3 million for 10 MW to 25 MW projects.
As regards the larger projects, those with proposed generating capacity between 25 MW to 100 MW of electricity will have to pay Rs 4 million rupees in license fee. Projects with capacity of more than 100 MW upto 500 MW will have to pay Rs 5 million, while for those above 500 MW will have to pay Rs 6 million.
“The increment in the licence fee has troubled the developers,” said Gyandendra Lal Pradhan, member of IPPAN.
During the meeting, the developers also asked the minister to revise the power purchase agreement (PPA) rate, suggesting an annual five percent hike on the exiting one. According to Pradhan, while making a presentation on the existing problems in the energy sector, they also proposed the government begin exploring external markets to fully utilise Nepal’s hydropower potential. The IPPAN officials also submitted a memorandum to the minister regarding their problems to the newly formed government. Minister Jha has called the developers on Wednesday for further discussion upon the matter.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
