& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

10-15 yrs tax holiday proposed for private power producers

Draft guideline on private investment in infrastructure projects submitted

REJAUL KARIM BYRON
In a move to encourage power generation in private sector, the government may offer 10-15 years tax holiday to the entrepreneurs and provide duty free fuel for generating power in remote areas having no access to electricity.
The special incentives have been proposed in a draft guideline on private investment in the development, operation and maintenance of physical infrastructures in the country.
Prepared by a seven-member committee headed by Kamaluddin Siddiqui, principal secretary to the prime minister, the draft has already been sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for approval.
According to the draft, a Private Infrastructure Committee (Picom) will be formed for coordinating and supervising infrastructure develop-
ment projects under private sector and taking quick decisions regarding their implementation.
The Board of Investment (BoI) will act as the secretariat of the Picom, proposed to be headed by the prime minister's principal secretary.
The draft has identified telecommunication, electricity, gas, roads and railways, airports, tourism, water supply, industrial park, land reclamation, river dredging, health and education facilities, rural infrastructures, and sea, river and land port development as prospective sectors for private investment.
According to the draft guideline, a ministry will have the authority to approve projects involving below $10 million investment while the more expensive projects will be approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
The Picom will help private
investors in removing the obstacles to project implementation process and provide quick decisions to solve any problem arising out of lack of coordination among the ministries concerned.
The committee will also formulate necessary rules and regulations for short and long term private investment in the selected sectors outlining the special benefits and incentives offered to the investors by the government.
The Picom will accelerate the handover process of lands from one ministry to another.
The draft says the tenure of build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement between the government and private entrepreneurs will be for 30 years for industrial infrastructure projects and 40 years for bridge, port and water supply projects.
The private entrepreneurs will be solely responsible for project financ-
ing and the government will not provide any guarantee against the investors' loans.
Commenting on the draft guideline, Dr Zaed Bakht, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), said it is a good move but everything will depend on the transparency in project implementation process.
He said the government has allowed private sector to set up export processing zone (EPZ) but the move so far failed to achieve any success. "The work on Korean EPZ is yet to start due to malpractice," Bakht added.
He mentioned that many countries have success stories of infrastructure development in private sector and Bangladesh can also benefit from it. But the projects should be properly monitored by authorised regulatory bodies, he suggested.