TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The government has proposed to hike the rates of duty leviable on the units consumed, by introducing the Goa Electricity Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2012 in Goa Assembly on Thursday.
The bill when enacted into a law will repeal and replace the Goa Electricity Duty (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012 which was issued by the Governor on May 9, 2012, hiking the duty, after the new BJP coalition came to power.
The Bill was tabled in the House by Power Minister Milind Naik justifying the hike on the ground that building up of the transmission and distribution network involves huge investment which cannot be met from the normal revenue requirement. And in order to mobilise additional revenue, it has proposed to amend the schedule appended to the Goa, Daman and Diu Electricity Duty Act, 1986 (Act 7 of 1986) so as to increase the rates of duty leviable on the units of energy consumed.
The Union Ministry of Power has mandated that all States should strengthen the transmission, sub-mission and distribution network within the States, so as to meet the Union government’s plan for capacity audition and also to make it possible to provide “open access” as per the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003.