They have argued that local investors should be encouraged to put more money in the sector even if they want to convert their black money to white by investing it in the clean energy sector.
"It is a god thing if someone wants to convert black money into white, but the government should not impose provisions like VDIS that only discourage investors," former Secretary of the Water and Energy Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources (corrected) Som Nath Poudel quoted businesspersons as saying. Poudel heads a 15-member committee formed by government to carry out studies and find possible ways to achieve the government’s target to produce 10,000 MW electricity in 10 years.
Water resources experts, top bureaucrats, policymakers and hydropower promoters are in the committee formed by the government in the first week of December last year. It was formed after Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, while unveiling the current annual budget, set a target of generating 10,000 megawatt of hydro power in the next 10 years.
"If we are not inquiring about the income source of foreign investors there is nothing wrong in giving exemption to the local promoters," Poudel said. The committee had convened a broad interaction among around 100 local promoters last Friday with a view to receive feedback from them.
The entrepreneurs have asked the government to enforce fixed policies and regulations on land acquisition, using public land and forests for hydro projects. Such issues have often been raised by locals to obstruct work at project sites across the country.
According to him the entrepreneurs are for joint commitment by the political parties on the issue of hydropower development so that the entrepreneurs need not tackle every single group and political party individually at project sites.
Besides other issues, they have also demanded that the government resolve transmission line problems and simplify the process of importing cement, steel and other materials for hydro projects. Currently, there are many bottlenecks in the national power grid due to which promoters face problem in connecting to the grid from many parts of the country.
According to Poudel, the local entrepreneurs claim that they can produce about 500 MW in about next three years if the government creates investment-friendly situation. Currently the power deficit in the country stands at 400 MW.
To receive feedback on the government program on hydropower development, the committee has consulted with a wide range of experts, institutions and stakeholders. "We published notices in media and also sent emails to over 100 experts and institutions requesting their suggestions," he said.
Though the government target is to generate 10,000 MW in the next 10 years, the committee is working on about 14,000 MW projects. " Pancheshwor, Koshi multipurpose hydro project and other mega projects including some other bilateral projects are not in our 10,000 MW program," he said.
The committee suggests to the government to provide run-of-the-river projects to private sector while storage type projects to the NEA as the latter type requires huge investments.
The committee has formed four sub-committees. Poudel heads the general sub-committee that looks after administration, finance, coordination, and editing, Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, a hydropower promoter, heads project selection sub-committee, economist Dr Govinda Nepal is the chief of the sub-committee that studies policies, acts and regulations and Bal Ram Pradhan, board member of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), heads another sub-committee that studies transmission line and electrification policies and programs.
The government in the last week of December last year declared national energy emergency as the country saw over 96 hours per week of load-shedding.
Related story
Mini-hydro project canal washed away
-1200x560-1776666120.webp)
-1776353206.webp)
