KATHMANDU, JUL 04 -The Industrial Promotion Board ( IPB ) on Wednesday decided to allow foreign investment in 44MW Super Madi Hydropower Project and endorsed a proposal from Bottlers’ Nepal on increasing its capital to increase production capacity of the Chitwan-based plant. The decisions were made during the IPB meeting chaired by Minister for Industry Shankar Prasad Koirala.
Super Madi, which holds a construction license for electricity generation, is seeking to bring foreign investment from its Costal Project Limited India. The project, being developed by Himal Hydro and General Construction, had sought the government’s permission to bring foreign investment for the project.
According to information posted on Himal Hydro’s website, Costal Projects India has a majority share holding (82.21percent) at Nepal Jalabidyut Prabardhan Tatha Bikas Ltd which in turn has 78 percent stake in Himal Hydro.
Bhaskar Raj Rajkarnikar, vice-president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) who participated in the meeting, said that the exact amount of foreign investment was not revealed during the meeting.
However, the Industry Ministry said in its press statement that the total capital of the project is Rs 6.35 billion. The run-of-river project is located at the bordering area of Namarjun and Parche Village Development Committees in Kaski district.
Meanwhile, Bottlers Nepal, the producer of cold drinks including Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite in Nepal, is seeking to increase the production capacity of its Chitwan-based plant with massive investment.
The IPB approved the company’s plan to increase its capital to Rs 3.12 billion from the existing Rs 121 million. “More capital was required for adding new facilities to out Chitwan plant,” said Salman Latif Rawn, the managing director of Bottlers
Nepal. The company expects the planned upgradation to increase the production by four times on its current capacity. The 205th meeting of the board asked the Finance Ministry to do necessary amendment to the existing laws for ensuring the reimbursement of excise duty for export oriented industries as per the court order. The court had ordered the government to refund excise duty paid for raw materials that are used for producing packaging stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment