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Domestic Sources Capable of Raising Funds in Excess for Budhigandaki Project

  1 min 41 sec to read

December 19: A committee formed to prepare the investment plan of 1,200-megawatt Budhigandaki Hydropower Project has estimated that the project can raise Rs 100 billion more than the required amount for the project.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 270 billion. A report prepared by the committee has pointed out to the possibility of raising Rs 350 billion for the project. The report was presented to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy Kamal Thapa on Monday, December 18.

The erstwhile government had handed over the responsibility of the national pride project to a Chinese company Gezhouba amid widespread criticism for choosing a foreign company for the project which was supposed to be completed with domestic investment.

A cabinet meeting on November 24 decided to complete the project with domestic investment after scrapping the deal with the Chinese company on November 13. Following the decision, the eight-member committee headed by National Planning Commission’s Vice-Chairman Dr Swarnim Wagle was formed to prepare the investment plan of the project. Some other members of the committee include Nepal Rastra bank’s governor, finance secretary, joint secretary of energy ministry as well as executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority.

The report prepared by the committee incorporates strategic importance of the project, investment, modality of contract, economic possibility and the alternatives of investment. The report also includes the present situation in hydropower investment, investment needed for hydropower sector in the next five years, demand and supply of electricity in the country.

The report states that the government needs to provide 35 percent as the viability gap funding for the project considering the total investment to be Rs 270 billion.

Meanwhile, in the budget speech for the Fiscal Year 2017/2018, the government had announced that it will levy Rs 5 per liter on petrol, diesel and aviation fuel for the construction of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project. The government has already collected Rs 15 billion from tax levied on petroleum products.

 

 

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