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Panel to vet big PPP projects

Special Correspondent

CCEA approves doubling of Vizag Steel capacity

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the setting up of a committee to appraise projects involving public-private partnership, where the capital cost or the cost of the underlying assets of the projects exceeds Rs. 100 crore.

The panel would be headed by the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and have as members secretaries to the Planning Commission, the Department of Expenditure, the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department sponsoring the project. It will be serviced by the Department of Economic Affairs, which will set up a special cell for the purpose. It will co-opt experts, if necessary.

Once the projects are cleared by the Appraisal Committee, they would be put up to the competent authority for final approval. In case there are departures from the Model Concession Agreement, which are not material or substantive, they would be cleared by the panel with the approval of the Finance Minister. In case there were departures that were material or substantive, the approval of the authority that approved the MCA would be necessary.

The Ministry concerned would develop individual proposals with the help of legal, financial and technical consultants and also avail of the expertise of an inter-ministerial consultative group, if needed. The proposal as formulated by the Ministry would be considered by the PPP Appraisal Committee for in-principle approval.

The CCEA also cleared a proposal to more than double the liquid steel capacity at Rashtriya Ispat Nigam in two phases to 6.3 million tonnes by 2007-08 at a cost of Rs. 8,692 crore with a view to helping the company be more competitive in the steel market.

The Union Cabinet, which also met on Thursday, decided to repeal the Agricultural Produce Cess Act of 1940 and the Produce Cess Act of 1966 so as to remove the cess on export of agricultural products and make them more competitive in the global market place.

This is in continuation of the Government's decisions in recent times to repeal the APEDA Cess Act and the Spices Cess Act and amend the MPEDA Act and the Coffee Act to remove the cess that had been imposed on various agricultural commodities.

Welcoming the decision, Union Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, noted that while the Government was not able to subsidise exports like the developed countries, it could at least refrain from taxing them, particularly as agricultural exports are a means to augment farm incomes.

PTI reports:

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the proposal to set up a Rs. 10,000-crore Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for funding infrastructure projects had been deferred for consideration by the next meeting of the CCEA on November 3. The SPV would focus on public as well as PPP projects in roads, ports, airports, rail freight corridor and other infrastructure schemes.

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