Cess on captive power units abolished

Bhopal, July 30 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh government has abolished cess on electricity generated by captive power units of industries entailing annual loss of about Rs 30 crore to the state exchequer.

A bill amending the Madhya Pradesh Cess (second amendment) Bill, 2007 was passed by voice vote in the state Assembly today. Cess was levied at the rate of ten paise per unit of electricity sold, supplied or consumed.

Replying to the debate on the amendment, Finance Minister Raghavji said no new tax was being levied in lieu of the cess being abolished as industries were not keen to establish captive power units.

He denied the opposition charge that the cess was being done a way with to give undue benefit to industries and expressed optimism that more industries would set up captive power units.

Mr Raghavji admitted that the state was yet to attain self-sufficiency in power generation and the demand -supply gap remained in the range to 1000 to 1500 megawatt.

Opposing the cess abolition, Mr Hukum Singh Karada (Cong) said power crisis was being felt in the entire state and the amendment was being made at the instance of industrialists. He claimed the cess abolition would cause loss of nearly Rs 60 crore to the state exchequer.

UNI