Indian utility executives, including Reliance Power Ltd. (RPWR) Chairman Anil Ambani, asked the government for faster environmental approvals for coal mines to help increase electricity generation and ease costs.
At a meeting with prime minister’s principal secretary Pulok Chatterjee, private power sector honchos, including Anil Ambani of Reliance Power and Cyrus Mistry of Tata Power, demanded that the power sector be exempted from service tax by including it in the negative list.
A host of issues, including gas allocation for power projects, high coal prices and implementation of coal supply agreements by Coal India, were among the topics that came up for discussion, sources said.
The government last week ordered state-run Coal India Ltd. to import the fuel if needed to increase supplies to power companies after the industrialists urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to help ease shortages. Singh set up a panel headed by Pulok Chatterjee, the principal secretary at his office, to find solutions to problems faced by utilities, including the higher costs of importing coal.
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