The TrickyScribe: Kakadu National Park will receive at least $216 million in funding to improve to improve roads and tourist facilities no matter who wins this year’s federal election. Labor has pledged $220 million for the World Heritage-listed Kakadu if it wins.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday announced the coalition’s $216 million package for the Northern Territory site during a visit to the town of Jabiru in Kakadu. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will visit Jabiru on Monday, with the PM’s trip organized after his office learned of Labor’s plans.

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It may be mentioned here that Kakadu National Park is a unique archaeological and ethnological reserve, located in the Northern Territory, has been inhabited continuously for more than 40,000 years. The cave paintings, rock carvings and archaeological sites record the skills and way of life of the region’s inhabitants, from the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times to the Aboriginal people still living there. It is a complex of ecosystems, including tidal flats, floodplains, lowlands and plateaux, and provides a habitat for a wide range of rare or endemic species of plants and animals.

During its peak as a tourist destination in the 1990s, as many as 3 lakh footfalls were observed annually – about half were international – when Crocodile Dundee was filmed there. Visitor figures are now down to below 2 lakh a year, with internationals less than 30,000.

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Kakadu is about one-third the size of Tasmania, boasting ancient rock art and rich flora and fauna. The infrastructure, however, is tired and there is criticism of the standard of how the park is joint-managed by the Mirarr Aboriginal traditional owners and Parks Australia federal agency.

Visitors complain about difficulty accessing much of Kakadu, the regular closure of roads and that, unlike Uluru, there are no direct commercial flights to the national park. The government’s plan includes $70 million to seal and upgrade roads and up to $111 million to improve tourism infrastructure.

“It is a living ground of 60,000 years of the world’s oldest living civilisation, when visitors come here from all around the world, I think that just blows them away. “I know from working with the tourism industry that you invest in infrastructure, not just the promotions. The international tourism business is a tough caper and standards people expect are high.”

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Labor’s plan includes $100 million to upgrade four key access roads, $45 million for urgent asbestos work in Jabiru and $25 million for a new visitor centre in the town. Saving Jabiru and its local businesses and helping it transition from a mining town that supported the Ranger Uranium Mine to a centre based around tourism will be a key aim.

Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Mirrar, and the NT government released a $446 million master plan for Jabiru last year. Both welcomed the PM’s funding announcement.

Northern Land Council deputy chair and town resident John Christopherson said Jabiru should be a university town with world’s best practice in land management, marine sciences, aquaculture, animal husbandry and significant numbers of indigenous students.

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The TrickyScribe: Indian Railways is all set to set up 1,000 MW solar power plants by 2021. Railways plan to source close to 10% of its electrical requirements from renewables. Railways have about 71.19 MW of Solar plants already installed over rooftops at Railways stations and service buildings.

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Assessment and rating of Indian Railway’s Production Units and major Workshops as Green Industrial Units started with ‘GreenCo’ certification of two Workshops and one Production unit in FY16-17. Not less than 31 new workshops, four new production units, two diesel sheds, one store depot and two supervisors training centres have been ‘GreenCo’ certified. Eight Railway Stations, two Railway Schools and one Railway Hospital have also achieved Green Certification.

OTHER RENEWABLES

Wind energy plants of 36.5 MW have been installed out of which, 26 MW at Jaisalmer was installed in FY15-16. Blending of 5% bio-diesel in High Speed Diesel (HSD) for diesel locomotives was started in June, 2015. As many as 20% CNG substitution in diesel engines of 23 Diesel Power Cars of Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains and the introduction of Solar energy based DEMUs.

LED LIGHTS TO ILLUMINATE RAILWAY STATIONS

Electrified Railway stations (other than those under gauge conversion) and 99% of service buildings have been fitted with 100% LED luminaries over Indian Railways.

AFFORESTATION DRIVE

Tree plantation drive for increasing green cover in Railway Premises is also being chalked out. Track-side boundary plantation started in 2016. On Indian Railways, Rs 1.25 crores saplings were planted during 2016-17, Rs 88.96 lakh in 2017-18 and Rs 97.33 lakh during 2018-19 up to November last.

WATER MANAGEMENT

Towards better Water Management, Water Audits at major consumption centres as well as proliferation of Water Recycling Plants and Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) Systems are undertaken. Water Policy of Indian Railways was issued in March, 2017.

BIO-TOILETS IN PASSENGER COACHES

Pace of installation of environment friendly bio-toilets in passenger coaches has been increased. Nearly 163,000 bio-toilets have been installed in around 44,500 coaches, out of which more than 127,000 bio-toilets were installed in around 33,500 coaches since April, 2016.

ELECTRIFICATION TO BE STEPPED UP

Pace of electrification is stepped up! Altogether 30,212 Route Kilometers (RKM) of Indian Railways are electrified. Of which 5,733 RKM was executed in two years FY16-17 and FY17-18. Electrification work is in progress on 33,658 RKM. In 2016, a policy decision was taken for allocating 1% cost in all sanctioned works for execution of environment related works.

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The TrickyScribe: With Indian PM Narendra Damodardas Modi being designated the UNEP Champion of Earth for 2018; the year was slated to be nothing but a sunshine year for renewables including solar power in India.

Power generation capacity touched 22 GW in FY18 displaying a remarkable growth of over 75% as compared to FY17. Despite a humble base, India’s target of achieving power generation capacity of 100GW by 2022 under National Solar Mission seemed within reach.

The prices were dipping. Reverse auctions by the government in 2017 to develop large-scale solar projects had attracted all-time low bids of around Rs 2.50 per unit of electricity. This made solar power cheaper than the traditional coal-based power that generally sells over Rs 3 per unit in the country.

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Minimum possible tariffs for solar and wind power in India now stand at Rs 2.44 and Rs 2.43 per unit respectively while the average rate at which states buy non-renewable power is Rs 3.53 a unit. This is only for the discoms, mind it! The consumers are being sold the same power at hefty rates.

The boom, however, is powered by imports of cheap cells & panels from China. Indian manufacturers raked in losses. Close to 85% of the solar panels used by Indian solar developers are made in China. The prices are falling rapidly as China has invested and also taken lead in mastering the technology.

With global powers including China ramping up and Indian government locking horns with local solar developers over taxation norms, things appear gloomy as far as renewables are concerned. Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council’s recent manoeuvre of recommending a concessional 5% GST on just 70% of the gross value of contracts is the bone of contention.

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According to the minutes of GST Council’s meeting dated December 31, “…disputes have arisen regarding GST rates where specified goods attracting 5% GST are supplied along with services of construction etc. and other goods for solar power plant.”

“To resolve the dispute the Council has recommended that in all such cases, the 70% of the gross value shall be deemed as the value of supply of said goods attracting 5% rate and the remaining portion (30%) of the aggregate value of such EPC contract shall be deemed as the value of supply of taxable service attracting standard GST rate,” the meeting minutes mention.

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Ventilating its disappointment, Solar Power Developer Association (SPDA) demanded a uniform 5% GST on solar power generating systems (SPGS) adding that in effect the total tax on SPGS would increase to 8.9%, a rate much higher than the effective 5% tax in the pre-GST days. Roughly 10% of total project costs were covered by a service tax of 15%, with the net tax burden being less than 5% back in those days.

The tax-tussle began when the new GST was introduced in July 2017. As SPGS was not defined in the law, chaos ensued. Meanwhile, Supreme Court ruled that solar power plants would be considered an immovable property and would attract 18% tax under “works contract”.

If the Authority for Advanced Ruling is to be believed, the setting up of solar projects is also classified as a work contract as they include the supply of goods and services packaged into an immovable property. These projects are, therefore, liable to be taxed at the 18% rate that applies to such work contracts.

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