Orissa calls for incentives for power producing states

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today called upon the Centre to come out with a legislation that would enable the power producing states to levy a duty on generation of power and to avail the same at a concession.

Emphasising that the existing power structure did not provide any incentive to the power producing states, he said such a legislation was the need of the hour.

Speaking at Conference of Chief Ministers on Power Sector held at the Vigyan Bhawan here he criticised the present regulatory framework's cap of four paise per unit for inter-state sale of electricity, saying the power producers should be allowed to leverage their natural advantage and no artificial restrictions should be imposed for benefit of more prosperous consumer states.

''In the name of being consumer friendly, the rate of sale of power should not be such as to demotivate the producing states,'' he stressed.

Urging the Prime Minister to extend a special package of Rs 2000 crore on the pattern provided to Bihar, to improve its transmission and distribution sectors, Mr Patnaik said it was ironical that the Centre was talking about reforms in the power sector without giving any incentives to Orissa, the first state to undertake the reforms process and complete it too.

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