• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

The Government plans to promote renewable energy to bring about a transition from the fossil fuel-based economy to one based on sustainable renewable energy.

NEW DELHI, March 22

THE Finance Ministry has been asked to retain the 100 per cent depreciation enjoyed by the renewable energy sector and not pare it to 60 per cent as proposed in the Budget.

"I have taken up the matter with the Finance Ministry for retaining the 100 per cent depreciation for the sector and hope the ministry would consider it favourably,'' the Minister of State (independent charge), for Non-Convention Energy Sources, Mr M. Kannappan, said.

While inaugurating the conference on Renewable Energy — New Approaches and Directions, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), here on Friday, "a draft national renewable energy policy is at the final stage of formulation and will be announced shortly".

The Ministry has also stressed the need for incorporating a provision on the Electricity Regulation Act for making it compulsory to produce minimum 10 per cent (of the total capacity generated) from renewable energy sources, and have uniform policy on banking, third party sales etc.

Further, the Government plans to promote renewable energy to bring about a transition from the fossil fuel-based economy to one based on sustainable renewable energy. "To begin with, we have planned to source 10 per cent of capacity addition — about 10,000 MW — from renewables by 2012," he said.

The Minister also said that the Government plans to ensure `electricity for all' by promoting power generation based non-conventional energy resources and provide electricity to all the 18,000 remote and inaccessible villages, which have no electricity now. "A massive plan has been finalised for providing cooking energy services to rural areas and enhancing the share of renewable energy in our industrial process heat requirements," he said.

This ambitious target undertaken for the next 10 years could require mobilisation of over Rs 60,000 crore and about 90 per cent of this amount would be required to come from private sources, he said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Sinha hints at further rollback

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line