(ET)
The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India, has sought immediate government intervention to salvage gas-based power plants with total capacity of nearly 25,000 megawatts and worth about Rs 1 lakh crore from becoming non-performing assets. A senior government official said the ministries of finance and power were looking into the matter and a revival scheme was under discussion. Senior officials of the two ministries are likely to meet on Thursday to further discuss the issue.
In a letter to the finance ministry, SBI has sought a long-term policy intervention to revive gas-based plants, people in the know said. It has asked for financial support from collections of coal energy through the national clean energy and environment fund. It has sought also a ‘must-run’ status to gas-power stations, similar to renewable energy plants, and reimbursement of fixed costs from the clean-energy fund to power distribution companies that enter into long-term power purchase contracts with these gas-based facilities. The bank has also sought bringing natural gas under the ambit of goods and services tax. It said despite the full support from lenders to the projects, those were still in stress due to lack of locally produced fuel.
