Members of the India Today Group, ladies and gentlemen. Before I came here today, I did a review of the power sector in Rajasthan. Rajasthan was one of the first states to join the Power For All 24/7 commitment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had initiated as soon as the new government came in in Delhi. I recall, probably the 1^st or 2^nd visitor to my office after I became the Power Minister was Ms Raje, and she was agitated. She was a truly concerned Chief Minister, telling me the story that she had inherited in the state how from 2008 to 2011, barely in 3 years, the losses of Rajasthan had increased from 2,300 crores to 21,000 crores in barely 3 years soon after she had demitted office in her earlier tenure. And, how when in 2013, she took charge of the state’s government, she inherited a power sector which was making an annual loss of 15,000 crores, annually, out of the nearly 80,000 crore debt that she had to bring under the UDAY programme.

Nearly 60,000 crores or so was debt accumulated because of losses in barely 5 years, and because of that accumulated debt, obviously, you have interest on interest and then it keeps accumulating to insurmountable levels. And, from a situation of Rs 15,000 crore annual loss that Rajasthan was suffering, I am delighted to share with you that thanks to the very very focused and sincere efforts of this government in Rajasthan, in barely 2 years, along with some support coming out of the Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana programme, the UDAY reform that was introduced in consultation with the states, you will all be delighted to know that the loss in the last year, which just ended in March, 2017, reduced from 15,000 which she had inherited to 5,200 crores last year.

In barely 3 years, with very little to really…….. this government through its relentless efforts has been able to bring the loss down to 1/3^rd and their target is that by next year this DISCOM will be able to profit. And, I tell you it will be a textbook case for how a business …… how you can first mess up a DISCOM in 5 years and how one can because of vision, because of integrity of purpose, a commitment to serve the people of a state, a commitment to do your job honestly, do your job efficiently, do your job well. One can convert a serious crisis that we inherited into an opportunity to do well for your people and bring down all those losses into a strong entity which can then continue to serve the people of the state for years and years….

And, mind you, while reducing the loss of the distribution company down to one-third in barely 3 years we have simultaneously also eliminated the loss of the generating company. The generating company last year was losing about 2,700 crore every year over and above 15,000 crore loss of the DISCOMs. Year March, 2017, that loss has been completely removed and it has been in profit last year.

That is truly power to the people, that is concern for the people and that is commitment to a cause. When the India Today Group invited me to this conclave and wanted to discuss the different initiatives that are happening in different states, I almost readily agreed on the request. Of course, Mr Raj Chengappa is such a dear friend and in any case he cannot refuse him any request. And on top of that, if you …….. to pursue the case then there is no way ….. can refuse.

But, the truly inspirational reason why I came here today was that I wanted to share with you the story of the turnaround of a state which almost the entire country had given up on, nobody wanted to touch the power story of Rajasthan, given that it was in such a shattered state of stress. You had villages almost getting no power, getting power for a few hours in a day, cities had to face frequent power outages, power cuts. The yearning need of the people was to get continuous power, to get quality power and to keep the power cost low and i don’t think in the last 3 years, the Rajasthan government has had to really increase the tariffs significantly, this has not come on the back  of passing on the inefficiency to the people. Of course, certainly the state government has had to take on the significant burden of the past legacy on to the books of the state government. And, that in fact is the beauty of the Indian system of government where continuity is building, even though a good government can say, look, i was not the cause of this Rs 60,000 crore loss and due to which …….. is causing huge loss here or there. We can’t get away by blaming it on the past. We have to inherit it and we have to resolve it.

You are all aware that the whole nation for the last 68 years until 2014 had never imagined that power can ever be power surplus that India can ever be surplus in coal. Entire mindset used to one of shortages, entire policies were written assuming that this country is perpetually going to have a power shortage. In fact, we often talk of scams. There is this coal gate scam of Rs 1,86,000 crores, there is the telecom scam of Rs 1,76,000 crores, the figures are so …… that you can’t even total all the ……….. But ………….. and what is the scam because as leaders of the nation, we are also responsible to prepare the nation for good times in the future. After all, we cannot be a nation of leaders who have no vision, who have no ability to give more and ……………. Our nation has the world’s third  largest reserves of coal and i am saying this because this in a way is in continuation with what Mr Anil said.

After all, what is the wealth of a nation? A wealth of a nation is what is below the ground, in terms of its mineral resources. A wealth of a nation is what is probably on the coastline through your fisheries and the wealth that the ocean provides to you. The wealth of the nation is the people what they call the demographic dividend, the ability of this nation to have such a large working population putting their best skills to use and creating wealth for the future of India. But, if we become so helpless that despite having the world’s third largest reserves we assume we are always going to have coal shortages in this country and all of the 220 GW of thermal power plants that we have in India, you will be amazed to know that 83 GW out of that, almost 40% of our installed thermal power capacity is either fully or largely dependent on imported thermal coal. And plants have been designed only on the basis of imported coal.

So, even when i have surplus coal, i have 52 million tonnes of coal in the pitheads of all the coal mines in the country. But, i can’t give it these power plants because they are designed only for coal which is coming from Indonesia, Australia or other countries. Because, in my view, creating a liability for next 25 years to continue to import one lakh crores worth of coal. Here or there, it’s a scam to my mind worth 25 lakh crores that we have become dependent on that imported coal to feed our thermal power generation capacity, which could very easily have been made  on domestic coal knowing full well we have such coal reserves. If only somebody had the vision and the ability think big, plan big, and bring that coal out of the ground just as what Mr Aggarwal was saying.

In fact, every time i am doing an exploration project in the Mines Ministry, i often quote the example of Hindustan Zinc and say that look sold out this company because our world said that this had only values of raw material below the ground and it went for the pitheads. Fortunately, ………………………….. and as you rightly said we have Mr Aggarwal’s deeply rooted in India, ………… some person who is coming from abroad chose to live in London but i think his heart and soul will always be Indian. And any time i meet him when i hear him……….. i can see that his heart beats for India. But, why did his heart not beat in the earlier governments, with officials, in the establishment for so many years and why do we have to find that Hindustan Zinc has reserves which probably lasted the last 18 years but another 40 years later it reflects with the way the country has been run for so many decades. The fact that clean energy was estimated to have 6-7 years of you said of all reserves and is already talking of ……………………. To my mind, i think it’s already once doubled the output, so it will be 4 times the output what he really got, originally. It was 1 lakh probably barrels, it’s already 3 lakh, you are looking at doubling that.

So, it only means that what this country needed and which Prime Minister Modi, the centre, Vasundhra Raje ji in the state, together, are trying to bring in the work of government in the country, in the state, is vision and leadership. And if you look back at any of my debates before even I became a Minister, while we were in the Opposition, and often this question used to be raised that what’s going on with India, why is India not developing fast, why are we not doing better, why our public sector units doing well?

I have never criticized the officials of the system, I always said what India lacks is vision and leadership, not our ability to perform. And I am delighted that we have today a government in this state, we have today a leader in this state, we have a leader in the government of India Prime Minister Modi who has the confidence that we can change the way government works, we can change the destiny of India, we can make India a better place to live in. And, certainly, the people of India trust this leadership. Again and again, election after election, if somebody is supporting Prime Minister Modi with such larger and larger electoral verdicts, clearly, the people can see the man’s intention, they can see his vision. They can see he means well for the country. They can see ………. Done demonetization, it’s in a series of steps. It’s not one step in isolation. It’s a series of steps that started from the first development, continued until demonetization. And it has hurt the people badly, the people who are used to the informal economy, who are used to working in cash. Some of them may have cheated or gamed the system, but the system will catch up with them. Data mining is going on on all those deposits which came into the bank account.

But, if demonetization hadn’t happened and there wasn’t a move to move the people into formal economy, GST could not have been a success. And, if GST had not been introduced then the success of demonetization would have been only short lived. All these steps are a series, each one linked to the other like beads in a necklace. And, in  fact, in some places we often find a little bit of criticism that GST has caused us this problem, that problem. We have been assessing all these issues and we don’t run the government with blinkers, obviously. And, any one or two genuine cases also which over a period of time will get sorted out.

As i said in one of my interactions, Anilji, of course, runs a big company, but the chief of the Clarke Hotels here, i am sure he faces enough challenges on a day to day basis in one of his hotels in running his hotels. I am sure India Today Group doesn’t find it easy, all the…. i mean there must be issues that keep propping up, the management inputs that are properly quickly resolved. And, of course, if there are more problems then there was no need for a Raj Chengappa as Senior Editor, anybody else could have run the organisation or Arun Poorie would be out of the job.

Similarly, when you are transforming a nation of a billion people, you are trying to introduce an honest regime, you are trying to plug every possible way in which the informal economy can run. Obviously, there are going to be challenges, it’s not going to be schools …….. But, then nation trusts that what Prime Minister is doing is for the good of the nation, the poor man who is the focus of every action of our government, the last man at the bottom of the pyramid, as Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay said and whose birth centenary we are celebrating, ‘the nation’s resources should be focused on improving the life of the poorest of the poor first.

That is this government’s central focus and all we are planning to do is move into the entire economy into the formal economy, so that everybody pays their taxes honestly. Competition is on quality of service, quality of goods, not on somebody’s ability to cheat on taxes. And, that ladies and gentlemen, is the central focus of the government of India, the government of Rajasthan, move into a new era which will create accommodation not for one or two or five years of prosperity, but for decades of prosperity, which will take every Indian citizen out of the problems that we are facing – poverty, despair, lack of affordable housing, lack of electricity. And, that ladies and gentlemen is our dream, our vision. 15^th August, 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of independence, we would like to see a nation where every citizen has a good ….., every citizen has 24 hours electricity – reliable, affordable, affordable electricity, clean energy. Every citizen has a toilet in his home, a basic thing like a toilet in his home, has good road to integrate with rest of the country, has quality education for his children and equal opportunity for his children, as this gentleman just now asked Mr…… to have a quality education and compete with our children, has proper healthcare facility, is using, leveraging technology, be it space technology, be it telemedicine, so that everybody’s parents can have quality healthcare for a better quality of life.

That ladies and gentlemen is the vision on which we are working. Vasundhra Rajeji is an integral part of this grand vision that Prime Minister Modi is implementing across the country. Wonderful work is happening in this state, we are proud of our government in this state. And I have no doubt in my mind, the pace at which this government is working to take water to – by the way, city..  she has already drawn up the whole plan how she plans to take water to every region of Rajasthan, even the remotest desert areas of Rajasthan, on the paper which is there in the front of you over there.

And, the kind of passion with which she is working to take electricity to every home in the state, even in the remotest Dhanis or hamlets in the state. How she is working – today we were fighting we did not …. our 1000 MW of solar parks, we want to expand that but the central government is not qualifying its……………….. Madam, i have already approved that and i am going to get back to tell you change the procedure.

That’s the sensitivity which we had, clean environment, a better environment for the future generation, for all of you, so that as Mahatma Gandhi said, we are only trustees who have inherited the earth or the globe to leave behind a better future for the children of tomorrow.  That ladies and gentlemen is our job, which we are trying to do honestly, which we are trying to do with whole sincerity. And, i am going to seek your blessings, your trust, so that we can do our job bigger, bolder and better in the future.

Thank you

Panelist: Thank you very much. That was really inspiring and it’s always a delight to hear you speak, since you speak so passionately. And, like what she said about …… it’s very obvious that your heart also beats for India. Thank you. I just want to ask you a quick check on the UDAY scheme. West Bengal was reticent to come out, so what are you doing to convince them?

A: I don’t have to convince them, because it’s a voluntary scheme. If voluntarily every state in the country except West Bengal has come on, i think people have to decide whether the scheme is good or whether the Chief Minister of West Bengal is bad. By the way, she had agreed to come out and meet personally, or sadly politics took over good economics. And she decided not to come. I have not persuaded any government. Mr Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister of UP when i introduced UDAY, he has written a letter to me, it’s there in my website, in which he said that we are delighted that you have introduced UDAY and which is great for my state. And on the phone when i first introduced it, he called me up to say, Piyushji aapne yeh scheme banayi hai, mujhe poora vishvas hai ki yeh mere Pradesh ke hit mein hoga, meri janta ke hit mein hoga. And they were ready to stand on, i think after Rajasthan signed, next state was Uttar Pradesh. We had just lost the Bihar election in November, one and half year ago, within 30 days of that Nitish Kumarji signed UDAY.

So, i don’t think we have ever – today, we were reviewing Rajasthan, Pushpendra Singhji, the honourable Power Minister of Rajasthan was asking me, how much money did you give to Uttar Pradesh? I said, i gave the amount to Uttar Pradesh – 11,000 crores, but i gave it when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, not when our government came. And the smallest amount i gave to Maharashtra and Gujarat from where the Power Minister and the Prime Minister come, because we were fair. Whatever work this government does, we have never discriminated between who runs the state, who doesn’t run the state. As Prime Minister Modi said after the resounding victory in UP, on the 11^th exactly, on 12^th March if you recall, the Prime Minister said, elections are over, this government of the BJP will  now work for 22 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, without discrimination at all. Election you can keep funding, post-election it’s one government.

Panelist: I think GST, there is a sense that renewable and ….. sectors got end of it,… you have higher taxes on hybrid cars, you have higher taxes on ……..?

A: Absolute wrong…. And, in fact, most of the things about GST that are often spoken about are based on uneducated information. In fact, i am coming to your channel on Monday for the GST session when it’s in …… anybody can come and ask anything they like. We have other Ministers talking to the audience all over the place. I am moving all over the country. I had already got two sessions in Vishakhapatnam and Delhi in …….. First of all, renewable sector has got one of the best things, solar power plants have been …. taxed only 5% GST. The hybrid cars, i requested the honourable Finance Minister to keep it higher. I have got two hybrid cars at 13 lakhs or something, i got Rs 80,000 concession, why the hell should i get an Rs 80,000 concession? You have got to pay 30 lakhs, you can pay 31 lakhs, point 1.

Point 2, a hybrid is still a petrol driven car, it just reduces the consumption a little bit. India is aiming big. We are not aiming for intermediate solutions. So, our effort is to introduce electric vehicles by 2030 in this country and that’s the right solution that really what is going to bring … fossil fuel, imported fuel, make India self-reliant and reduce the pollution levels. So, why should i encourage intermediate solutions till we do that. We will never be able to develop indigenous technology for electric vehicles, so we are aiming big. And i am happy to share with you, Rajasthan found the ……even if you use very small portion of Rajasthan, possibly 1 or 2%, 5% of the land area of Rajasthan, we can generate enough solar energy to power all the electric vehicles in India which will be there in 2030. So this is going to be a huge future for Rajasthan, our plan for electric vehicles.

So, today Cairn Energy supplies oil. In the future solar power of Rajasthan is going to run the cars of the entire country.

Thank you.

 

मेरी  वाइफ बोलती है की it’s a reminder to you बहुत काम करना बाकी है complacency नहीं चलेगी, I just want to request for a little change of programme, first of all, my apologies, मुझे कल रात को Honourable Surface Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari Ji का फ़ोन आ गया था और by coincidence वो stressed power assets ही discuss करना चाह रहे थे. We agreed to meet at 9 o’clock in the morning so that before I come here I could get his sage advice, particularly after his grand success in sorting out the problems of the road sector which he has done very admirably in the last 3 years. Nobody can deny that we’ve seen probably the finest working of a minister and his ministry in the road sector in the last 3 years, so I spend an hour with him in the morning to get his advice but I apologise that I have to keep you waiting, I requested programme शुरू कर दो but, I believe that the chairman was kind to me. So, my apologies to you at the outset. Secondly, I have requested for some changes that the presidential nominee of the NDA Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji is filing his nomination papers at 11:30, so 11:00 I’ve to go, just to greet him and the filing of nomination, but I’ll come back soon after that is over and around 12:00, whatever earliest I can come & at that point of time I’d like to do the launching and all that, and I’m giving you reason for that, because I want to use the next 10-15 minutes to just bring a little perspective to what I wish to discuss with you when I come back at 12 o’clock.

Our compliments to the entire team, the regulators, the power ministry. It’s really been a fantastic achievement, we’re grateful to Mr. Girish Pradhan, the regulator, Mr. Shingal, Mr. Bakshi & Mr. Iyer, the members, Mr. Chatterjee, he keeps involved with all my meetings, he’s always there. गाली गलोच भी हो जाती है बीच में उसमे भी बेचारे को सेहेन कर लेना पड़ता है. Honourable power secretary has been really outstanding, he is retiring at the end of this month but certainly, he is not tired as you can see. So you’ll see him very active in this sector or in bigger things as I can foresee in the days ahead. He just mentioned about some of the wonderful things that Ms. Jyoti Arora has done in the last 2 years, admirable work in the power sector. Anirudh is looking at the thermal sector and tries to get the stresses power assets and all rejuvenated Mr. Mehtani and his team in MNRE, under the new leader who has just taken charge yesterday. Have their role cut out, थोड़ा स्लो हो गयी है Ministry उसको rejuvenate करने की आवश्यकता है बहुत solidly and I hope all your colleagues get this message very strong. I’m really disappointed by the MNRE’s performance of late and you know I don’t mince my words when I say anything, and in some sense I have to speak to the regulators also, which we’ll do when we proceed on specific issues, but in the overall context, I would like to place on record that this has been one sector, and the probably the only one where the Government and the regulators are in sync with each other. मेरे 3 साल के कार्यकाल में मुझे एक भी बार ऐसा महसूस नहीं हुआ never felt even for the slightest moment, any sort of friction between regulators and us, between regulators and the Government at all. So I would like to express not only my grateful thanks but my deep appreciation of all that all of you as a team has done to ensure that we work in harmony as colleagues, as stakeholders of this sector. All of us working together to make this a better sector, to make it successful, and in that, we’ll continue our discussion today to find solutions, not to leave problems on the table. In fact, मेरे लड़के बार बार मुझे एक phrase लिखके देते है की a problem is a problem till you find a solution, and our job as I was seeing the mandate of the regulator, apart from protection of interest of consumers, which is paramount, is also promotion of efficiency, economy and competition in the power sector, that part is somehow is missing in our scheme of things as we’ve worked so far.

Even this friction, while we may not have friction, I’m a little disappointed because of थोड़ा बहुत friction भी होना आवश्यक है. आप लोग तो ज्यादा ही State Governments के साथ मिलजुल के काम कर रहे हो, और ये मेरी big disappointment आपके साथ. In a sense, you can’t have regulators who are waiting for the signal for Government और फिर निर्णेय लेंगे। ये क्या मतलब है. फिर regulator बनिए ही मत. ये कोई post-retirement 3 साल 5 साल या गाडी बंगले के लिए जॉब मत देखिये इसको. इसके बारे में आप सब लोग reflect करिये before I come back at 12 o’clock. Have we become subservient to the State Governments who appointed us, was I a chief secretary in the state and मेरे को किसी ने favour करके appoint कर दिया तो अब में जो State Government चाहेगी में वही pass करूँगा, वोही approve करूँगा कोई नहीं पास करूँगा, कोई बुरा भला नहीं बोलूंगा, आप सब अपने गिरेवान में, look inside you and tell me whether you have been honest with your job or you have been honest with the person who has appointed you, or loyal to the person; it’s a very serious comment I’m making and with full responsibility after 3 years of engagement. In fact, आज भी मेरेको pradhan साहब ने invite नहीं किया में self-invited guest हु यहाँ पे, I told Jyoti Ji that I want to spend quality time, अब unfortunately हमारी जॉब ऐसी है की presidential nomination आ जायेगा तो सपने में भी नहीं था, so I have to go, but I just changed my 1 o’clock appointment to 1:30 so I get another half an hour here. Frankly, I think next time around, if we can spend a day outside Delhi, so that we just don’t hope, मतलब presidential nominee हो तो सब Chief Ministers वगैरह सब काम छोड़ के दिल्ली आये हुए है, सब Ministers वो अलग ही इशू हो जाता है. God forbid वो न हो, I just want to spend a day, we’ll even do swimming together, I don’t know how to swim though, we’ll just spend a day and get to know each other better for a whole day and let’s not do it too much in the future फिर parliament आ जायेगा और दुनिया भर के और लफड़े, even though this has been there let’s have a 61st meeting also quickly.

Compliment you on the e-filing, it’s a great step forward, I hope all the states are also taken up. We will discuss a little bit about, somebody knows what issues I’m flagging of which we will discuss at 12 o’clock. We’ll discuss a little bit about backlog also, pending issues between the states and central regulator, backlogs, any appointments that are pending where I have a role to play or I can play. So, so far if at all anybody noticed the friction between the states and regulator, good and bad of it, the fact that we must try and finalise a date when I can spend a whole day with everybody, free and frank, don’t even make minutes of that meeting, just we call it a pleasure trip.

What we can do for making e-filing and even a mobile app for all the state regulatory processes, also getting into public domain. मेरा अनुभव  3 साल का यही रहा है जो जो चीज़ transparently public domain में डाली, it has just dramatically changed the outcome and results of that. Case in point, The DEEP portal which we’ve just mentioned. I honestly didn’t realise 2,000 crores, though I did know every state particularly the southern states have glorified this performance के कहाँ हम Rs. 10 – Rs. 12 की बिजली लेते थे and today it is down to Rs. 3 even in peak hours, most cases. One tower fell on 14th of this month which did cause distress in Uttar Pradesh and northern states for 5 days, but I think that’s also gone, with the advent of rain and probably some recirculation of the, but that of course brought to my mind that now regulators will have to also access की अगर reliable power infrastructure हमे चाहिए like Mumbai, you know I jokingly say that Prime Minister appointed me because I come from Mumbai, though I’m not a power guy or an engineer also, thinking that what I’ve enjoyed for 50 years in Mumbai I should do for the rest of the country, for which I need your support. After all, if one tower collapse can literally kill the entire northern infrastructure. It’s a very very very serious issue. We need to do something about that, we need to create more loops, more alternates, N minus 1 redundancy थी उसके बावजूद ये हुआ तो Is N minus 1 enough? Or is that going to be at least given some leverage in such a situation or not ? or alternatively do we need to expand lines?  नया लैंड नहीं लेना है तो इसी लाइन के साथ एक सेकंड लाइन लग सकती सकती है क्या? Additional  capacity? I don’t know मुझे टेक्निकल कुछ नहीं मालूम है पर रास्ते आप लोगो को हमें बताने पड़ेंगे, tower collapse से दिमाग मेरा हिला दिया, 30^th May 2014 में  Tower Collapse हुआ था, I don’t know if any of you remember, it was called baptism by outage for me, but now it’s….I just joined 27^th I took charge, 30^th was the power outage और दिल्ली में और सब हाहाकार मचा हुआ था तो literally मैं….. यहाँ ladies बैठी हुई है तोह real word नहीं use कर सकते, but I was on fire. Those who are familiar with English slang will understand what was on fire, but the reality is that we can’t allow this kind of a system that a tower can cause agony to a whole set of 7 states in the northern India, what we need to do address this issue. What more can we do, for the industry to survive and grow.

ये tower collapse से मुझे एक और lesson मिला, that’s another thing that I learnt only on the 16^th, how I learnt it. I like to show off that our sector is doing well. तो एक दिन रात को दस-साढ़े दस बजे बैठ के, मैं तो देखता रहता हूँ विद्युत् प्रवाह किसी के साथ बैठ था मैंने कहा देखो हमारे यहाँ बिजली में हमने क्या किया, विद्युत् प्रवाह खोला तो बिजली Rs. 4.92 पैसे at 10:30 in the night, I cut such a sorry figure there I immediately called I don’t know you or her or him or somebody. What the hell is happening where is our own system?  Do we have a system to monitor ? उसके बाद मालूम पड़ा की tower has collapsed, अगले दिन , so we have no system that we know what the hell is happening, “B” we have no system that is something has happened what is going to be done to rectify it, “C” if one tower collapse can do that, 3-4 days back मेरे mind में खटखटा की सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने आर्डर तो बड़ी आसानी से दे दिया but if this 11,000 MW get sucked out of the system, TATAs, ADANIs, SRs and some 2-3 more projects coastal कुछ आए थे 5-6 मेरे सामने, तो-तो मेरे 3 साल की उपलब्धियां नाली में तो छोड़ो Indian Ocean में भी पूरी सिमट नहीं पायेगी इतनी बड़ी समस्याए आ जाएँगी अपने गले में so I can’t take the view which of course press को मैं बोलता रहता हूँ कल भी बड़े शान से कहा मेरा कोई नहीं लेना देना नहीं है, State और Procurer और Companies की मुसीबत है but isn’t it our job collectively to protect the sector also और अगर वो हो गया तो क्या 3 रुपये में बिजली मिल पायेगी क्या देश में ? क्या फिर उसका 10 पैसे – 50 पैसे के चक्कर में 3 रूपये का Impact आएगा क्या in states में? You know, you understand, so my mind has been under so much stress since the 14^th of June, fortunately my birthday had         passed by that time वो birthday भी क्या था I was busy till 11 in the night. 11 बजे we started thinking  अब किसको बुलाएं कुछ सेलिब्रेट ही करलें, we caught hold of one friend and took him out for dinner, but I was just telling you this stress that has built up in the last week I didn’t have 3 years ago also if this is the fragile state of our sector than we really need to introspect and think deeply की what are the possibilities that can happen in the future and उस possibilities में से ये product efficiency, economy & competition in power sector आएगा|

I just flag two things, you remember the Vodafone decision, retrospective taxation, did it not kill the India story for 3-4 years till Mr. Modi came and kind of without touching Vodafone again was able to give comfort to the people की भाई आज के बाद हम कभी retro-active action नहीं लेंगे, but nobody likes uncertainty in the system. Have we all really created a system which is full of certainty, predictability? Because वो जब तक नहीं होगा लोग इस सेक्टर में कोई इन्वेस्ट करने को तैयार नहीं होगा MNRE में कुछ semblance of security आयी थी regular bidding and all तो देखिये क्या तेज़ गति से grow किया, 6 महीने में no bids nothing and again the sector is doing it. I almost had 10,000 MW of manufacturing capacity lined up to come to India all are chickening out after the last 6 months. लगा कि यार कुछ हो ही नही रहा इस सैक्टर में एक ने तो शायद मैन्युफैक्चरिंग लगाई और अब मुझको रोज गाली देता है पब्लिकली गाली देता है कि तुम्हारे भरोसे पर लगा दी और डोमेस्टिक तो खरीद ही नही रहे हो आप लोग, सब चाइना को बिजनेस दे रहे हो, ultimately we we will have to look at the big picture of the sector and takes some serious decision on how all of us are going to contribute, otherwise frankly I am making a very harsh comment otherwise if I cannot do any action I really have no business to be here and I think each one will have to reflect that am I so weak that I cannot take decisions, I cannot be a part of a new type of governance in the country, should I retire gracefully or resign gracefully or should I be a part of the system which is looking at a new of doing things, for that matter मैंने तो कोशिश की थी in New Electricity Amendment Act  की regulators में भी कोई हम नहीं आपका review करें, कम से कम आप तो peer review कर सकते है | suppose आप लोग रिसोल्व करें आज के .. में  कि हम …  रिव्यु करेंगे, और सिरियस रिव्यु होगा without friend, friendship or favour, what a message you will give to the country, regulators themselve deciding  कि भाड़ में जाये आपका electricity ammendement act, हम तय करते हैं कि हम … रिव्यु करेंगे suppose i am throwing a thought to all of you , क्या हम कुछ रिफॉर्म के measures suo motto कर सकते हैं क्या? in our own working, in our own style of working, क्या हम कुछ मापदंड some rules of the game डाल सकते हैं क्या ? कि  i will take the decision in 30 days why should a file be pending ? Prime minister just took some data from all the minister of how many files remains pending, what is the speed of disposal,  I think my own data is we have cleared about 5,000 files in the last 3 years, 5,000 files, as on 31st may, i had 32 files pending, and i blasted my department कि ये 32 कैसे रही? एक दिन भी मैं नही सोता हूं till i care my files, as best 24 hours next day, और वो 32 देखी तो 6 वीआईपी रेफरेंसस, 12-14 तो ऐसी निकली कि मेरे प्रिवियस पीएस ने पता नही वो सिस्टम में या ड्राअर में रख दीं कि क्या कुछ पुटअप ही नही की, किसी की ट्रांसफर पोस्टिंग, ये वो, 32 में एक डिसिजन …. वन, और वो शायद मैने ही रोकी थी for some reason, what was the reason? you know that? I can get that. but i am disappointed at myself कि 5,000 have been cleared in 3 years, but उस 32 से मेरा पारा चढ गया. पूरे एक एक की इन्वेस्टिगेशन की ये 32 कहां पड़ी थी? but we all have to put some मापदंड or some control in our working also, if our states are not fulfilling the UDAY terms and MoUs, if states are not doing RPO compliance, we will have to become pro active so what if they appointed you, अब तो आपको वो लोग हिला नही सकते हैं, इतना तो पक्का है.  Am i right, now i can’t touch you ……. whether i like you or dont like you, अब काहे का स्टेट के ऊपर प्रैशर और ऑब्लिगेशन, वैसे भी आधे आप लोगों के स्टेट में  गवर्मेंट भी चेंज हो गयी है अभी, अच्छा ये सब रेगुलेटरी कमीशन की फंडिंग कहां से होती है ? स्टेट से, i am even ready  कि अगर कोई स्टेट किसी को तंग करे फंडिंग,  i will provide the funds, Self fund! बिल्कुल, चलो वो भी लफड़ा नही है, फिर तो वो भी प्रोब्लम नही है पर  i am willing to say i will under right any shortage, any regulator has, of any kind but please dont be dependant on your state government. lets think big and bold. let this meeting today resolve that we are not going to be bound by the all rules of the game. ofcourse great, great messaging through the merit order dispatch जो weather portal, very delighted that you comeout with this 4,500 MW. पर हर एक चीज मे हमें थोड़ा इन्नोवेटिव सोचना है समझो 4,500MW आज के दिन किसी स्टेट को जा रही है, can we replace that with some other capacity? bring this 4,500 into the central pool, which will be available to a central load dispatch centre, which will in coordination  with the states, provide the power because now we have  a one nation one grid. Wherever there is such frequency mismatch, can we think in those lines? थोड़ा बहुत हर चीज में हमको नये तरीके से सोचना पड़ेगा |

Let’s forget the past, 23rd June, let it be a defining day, कि आज के बाद, हर चीज The Logo सोचेंगे. I think we get excellent results out of that. Stressed asset is one thing I would like to discuss in the second half when I come back, on what way we should go, because I am myself getting stressed, after this tower collapse, कि stressed asset भी हमको कहीं साथ में ही ना ले कर चले जायें, जितना तरीफ आप लोगो आप सब लोगों ने अपनी सुनी होगी, after all जितना improvement आता है पॉवर सिस्टम में, आप लोगों को भी तारीफ आती होगी ना, आपके स्ट्रीट में भी तरीफ होती होगी, कि अच्चा चल रहा है सिस्टम, देखो regulator, state, everybody, but that will all go down to drain. We will all go down as, let’s say, failed leaders of our sector, if we don’t do something seriously. ofcourse इसमे बैंक का भी मामला जुड़ा हुआ है, There is one suggestion, हर ऐप, या जो भी निकालो, उसको एक नाम दो, अगर उदय नाम नही दिया होता आज कोई FRP-3 को याद नही करता, पर लोग आज उदय को ही recognize करते हैं, पर आप ने नाम दिया है MOD, मैं बैठा बैठा तुरंत सोच रहा था, उसको MERIT कर दो. Because Merit Order Dispatch से identity fast हो जायेगा, M will stand for Merit Order Dispatch – MOD, E will be Electricity, R will be Rejuvenation, I will be income and T will be Transparency. So, Merit Order Dispatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income & Transparency. Maybe, it’s just a thought, ऐसे आप जो भी ऐप बनाओ, उसको कुछ, एक तो सैंट्रली हो जाये और उसमे स्टेट लिंक हो जाये, जो आपने e-filling किया है उसको भी immediately करिये, हां, बढिया है, beautiful name, I wish I could have come with better name, which has a merit like this. अच्छा Saudamani में सबको सम्मिलित करिये, और everybody should think with sensitivity to the sector. आप सोचिये, अगर ये सैक्टर ऐसे ही, डगमगाता सा रहा, और stress और stalled रहा, एक रुपये, एक नयी investment नही आयेगी इस सैक्टर में, कोई नही पैसे डालेगा, failed sector में कोई नही डालता है, बैंक भी कोई लोन नही देंगी, और वो हो गया, तो आज नही, चार साल बाद, फिर 2011 की स्थिति हो जायेगी, और तब लोग जब इतिहास लिखेंगे तो हमको ब्लेम करेंगे, कि इन लोगों ने ठीक से हैंडल नही किया, जैसे आज मैं imported power plants, imported coal पर power plants लगे हैं, मैं ब्लेम करता हूं पिछली सरकार को, क्योंकि उनमे इतनी हिम्मत नही थी, कि भारत के कोयले का उत्पादन बढा सकते हैं, प्लानिंग नही की, कि कितनी प्लांट्स की requirement है। अब 80,000 imported coal पे लगा के, इस देश में 100 Million Tonne, हर वर्ष इम्पोर्ट होगा, ये liability छोड़ कर गये हैं, ये भी एक स्कैम है, और हम सब जानते हैं, कोयले की इम्पोर्ट की मुसीबत and all.

तो आप सब सोचिये, कितनी बड़ी liability है, एक लाख करोड़ की liability, उतना ही होता है ना इम्पोर्ट लगभग. 1 लाख करोड़ की liability for 25 years, हमारे गले में छोड़ कर गये हैं, तो क्या हम लोग अगली पीढी के लिये क्या छोड़ कर जाने वाले हैं, उसके लिये सामूहिक चर्चा कर के तैयरि कर ले, कि हमारी क्याजवाबदारी है?

क्या हम एक stressed falling sector with zero investment छोड़कर जायेंगे या अच्चा कर के जायेंगे? Let me promise you, मैं कभी कभी कड़वा भी बोल देता and सबकुछ, पर मुझे कोई द्वेष की भावना, किसी के लिये नही है, It’s all in the interest of the sector, जैसेये मीटिंग खतम होती है, जैसे पार्लियामेंट खतम होती है, कैमरा बंद होता है, सब दोस्त हो जाते, फिर जो पार्टीका हो, वैसे अपना भी रिश्ता हो ना चाहिये, मीटिंग में आप भी कड़क बोलिये, मैं भी आप को बोल सकता हूं, camera is out, we are all friends. And I am willing to learn also, sometimes I get carried away, ज्योति जी मुझे कुछ बोले तो मुझे लगता है कि बहुत अच्छा है, फिर आप बोलो तो मुझे लगता है कि ज्योति ने गलत बोला, फिर सिंघल साहब कुछ बोलते हैं तो मुझे लगता है कि ठीक है, अनिरुद्ध कुछ बोलता है तो लगता है सिंघल साहब ने तो डुबा दिया, फिर बख्शी जि मुझे एडवाइस देते हैं तो मुझे लगता है सिंघल was right, ये तो learning process mein, you should have an open mind, हो सकता है चार चीजें, दो चीजें मेरे नॉन टेक्निकल, un-informed mind में आ जाये, certainly 80- 90% तो आपके ही आईडिया मुझे चलाने पड़ेंगे, मेरे को तो ये सैक्टर ज्यादा मालूम भी नही है, So all of us, imagine collective wisdom of 50 people in this room, it worth in it weight is gold, each one of you has put 40 years atleast of productive working life, अमेरिका में यही चीज होती तो बता देते, 1 million hours of wisdom or may be more now, if somebody can do math, 20 million hour of wisdom is sitting in this room, और उसके बाद हमारे सैक्टर में ये तकलीफ है, तो ये surely and certainly हमारे लिये चिंता का विषय है,. So when I come back, let’s discuss on this list of issues, ofcourse इसमें मेरी जरूरत नही है, मेरे जाने के बाद tarrif simplification, rationalization of tarrif, time of day के लिये क्या स्टेप्स लेने हैं, top to bottom, highest consumer से शुरु करके कितनी जल्दी, अब वो आदमी 25 युनिट यूज करने वाला mid time of day, 2 साल के बाद में भी आयेगा तो फर्क नही आना चाहिये, स्मार्ट मीटर्स के लिये हम क्या कर सकते हैं

for faster rollout, I am going to fund 100% for smart meters, directly, indirectly, mostly grant, loan,

जैसे भी, low cost loan, par are we doing it to rollout fast? RECs, ये सरकार की विश्वसनीयता का सवाल है, RECs पर जो भी निर्णय आपने लिये हैं, और उदय के अंडर जो कमिटमेंट आयी थी, कि they will buy,

अगर हमने ये नही फुलफिल किया, तो ये REC मेरी बीमारी नही है, ये ऐतिहासिक बीमारी, बीमारी नही बोलूंगा मैं, उस समय पर जरूरी था, to promote renewable,  पर जो विरासत मिली है, बीमारी, I withdraw that word, जो विरासत मिली है, मैं उस से मुकर नही सकता कि वो पिछली सरकार ने किया था, ये मेरी जिम्मेदारी है, जो भी विरासत में मिला है, अब वो मेरी जिम्मेदारी है, तो उसको भी सोल्व करना वो हमारी जिम्मेदारी है, तो नये आदमी को क्या भरोसा हमारी कोई भी पॉलिसी पर. कल को हम मुकर जायेंगे तो, नयी सरकार मुकर जायेगी तो, तो Government is in continuity, हम उस continuity में cog हैं, in that wheel, अगर उसमे हम damage कर दें इस wheel को, चाहे छोटा हिस्सा ही डैमेज करें, वो परमानेंटली उस व्हील को चलाता जायेगा. If you damage a millimeter of a 50 meter wheel, toh voh 1 millimeter रगड़ते ही रखेगा उस व्हील को, तो वो व्हील घूमते घूमते हर पल आपको याद दिलायेगा कि उस 1 मिलीमीटर ने 50 मीटर के व्हील को डैमेज किया और डैमेज करके सालो साल तक वो damaged रहेगा. तो हमने choose करना है कि हम 1 मिलीमीटर को बड़ा करने वाले हैं या उसे बंद करके, उसे smooth roll करेंगे, या उसमे कोई element बनकर सोल्वे करेंगे So my apologies once again, I have to rush quickly and complete my duties, but I will certainly come again.

Thank you Mr Pujari, Mr Suresh Kumar, Mr Mahajan, Mr Jay….colleagues from different Ministries, PSUs and I believe 75 associations today engaged with the various Ministries present today, a very very warm welcome to you. We have been hearing so much about the GST that it almost sounds like the independent movement once again. And I do remember reading, of course, I was not born at that time when the independence movement was taking place, at that time of time also there were some naysayers who would say that oh, but is India ready to be independent. There was a school of thought, which was very concerned about India’s ability to handle democracy, about ability to handle independence.

And in one sense, the GST today is a reform, a historic reform which has the potential to completelychange the way we have done business over the last 70 years, the way the tax structure has evolved over seven decades and, to my mind, can lead to complete independence from discrimination, from harassment, from unfair competition. And, while some people raise certain concerns, some of them are genuine undoubtedly, one will have to look at it like (Inaudible). After all, we can keep wishing that we learn to swim, we can keep admiring the water from a distance, we can keep arguing what the temperature of that water should be, and everybody will have their own personal cases and preferences. Some may feel that you …… the skin at maybe 40 degrees, another may feel that he is happy up to 45 degrees, another may say no, I like cold water I want it to be 25 degrees. One can keep having a lot of argument, and in any case, what was that book? The Argumentative India! We love to argue all of us.

But, the fact is unless you jump into the water, you will never learn how to swim and in that sense, at the outset, let me make it very clear that this roll-out of GST is going to happen on 1 July. There are no ifs and buts, and possibilities of further discussion or engagement on this subjects, and more so because whether you do it on 1^st July this year or you do it on 1^st July 2018 or 19’ or 22’, or any time before or after that, the issues are going to be the same, are going to be broadly similar. There is going to be a set of people who have suddenly realised that post GST a lot of illegalities will not work, who suddenly realise that in this regime, there are so many opportunities to get caught in the system if you are trying to game the tax regime that you do hear murmurs, you do your voices coming in from different areas.

We take cognizance of all that we hear, all that is said, the department officials are also continuously monitoring social media, responses of various trade associations, specific industry segments, all of that is being very very carefully monitored, addressed. The GST Council has met on more occasions than I thought was expected. And I must say, being a chartered accounted myself, I have been watching from outside, the way this whole process has been systematically addressed, the way the whole system has been prepared is truly remarkable.

I, frankly, would not have designed a system as good as this, even if I had spent five years on this subject. I have become a fan of the officials and the honorable Finance Minister for the painstaking effort with which they have addressed each and every issue that came across, that we all came across during the preparations for GST. And to my mind, the sincerity and the long-long-long number of hours, man-hours, man days, engagement, consultation that has gone into preparing this GST is something that this nation needs to be proud about, this nation will remember for years and years and decades to come, possibly, for generations to come. Because, I think this has the potential and can become the game changer to actually impact 125 crore Indians, because, ultimately, and the whole GST regime has as its focus, the consumer, the customer is the king. How can we reach the benefits of a fair and equitable tax regime to the consumer, how can we ensure consumer interests are protected, how can we make sure that in this nation where liberty and quality is our hallmark of our constitution, everybody gets an equal chance to do business in an honest, transparent and fair manner.

That truly is the defining feature of the GST regime as it’s been brought out when they say it’s one nation, one tax, one market. It truly is going to be another independence day for India as we roll out this new regime, independence from a lot of nonsense that all of us have faced over the last many years. I have been in the private sector for more than 27 years before I got into government. And I have faced all the difficulties that each one of you has in your mind. We all have faced difficulties when we were dealing with eight, or 10 or 12 different departments who were all getting subsumed under the GST regime. We have all faced difficulties of multiple returns, multiple assessments, multiple raids, classification problems, harassment by officials and despite all of that, probably we got used to so many of these things that when there is an attempt to get rid of all of these problems and free you from all these difficulties, somehow a lot of people are not able to appreciate the huge benefits that this good regime to brings in.

I will try to address few of the major concerns that are often spoken about. But one thing is certain, any transition, and certainly, a transition as big as this one will have certain difficulties, certain pain points in the initial period. We have to be prepared for that, accept that. There is no perfect one-size-fits-all solution to the whole regime. And as I said unless we jump into the water and experience what it is like to be in this new regime, we are never going to be able to really, either enjoy the fruits of it or understand the huge difference it will make to our lives for the better.

Of course, we are going to launch it on the 30^th at midnight as you are all are aware now. At parliament, it is probably the second round of independence, independence from the drudgery of taxation systems, from harassments, from terrorism of taxation, multiplicity of taxes, cascading impact of taxes on consumers. And, to my mind, the 85 lakh registered tax dealers that are there in the excise, VAT, service tax and all of these systems today will at least multiply by two times, possibly, go beyond two crores over the next two or three years.

A lot of care and concern has been taken to make sure that all small traders or small manufacturers, businessmen with turnover up to 20 lakhs, will kept out of this regime. There is the compounding scheme up to75 lakhs where a manufacturer can pay only 2%, a trade can pay only 1% of his turnover and not have to keep too many records except a sales register.

The biggest beauty of this entire GST regime that has been beautifully drafted by the hon’ble Finance Minister, the Finance Secretary and their team of Ministers and Secretaries of all the state. And let me be clear, this is not something that I believe we have done, the BJP or the central government has done. This is truly an example of collaborative and cooperative federalism working at its best. The entire nation, every state government, for that matter, every political party in the country even though they may not be in government in any state has had a collaborative role to play in this part. After all, getting it passed in the central, both the houses and in all the states, unanimously, reflects that even a party which has been wiped out in may be a Assembly Election or a Lok Sabha election and has some residual members of the parliament in the Rajya Sabha also had an equal say or had a role in this roll-out of GST.

And if you reflect, there has never been, and may be in Arnab’words never ever been, any such massive transformational reform that has had such unanimity across the country. Of course, some people are I don’t know for what reason finding even fault with Amitabh Bacchan becoming the brand ambassador of GST in its present form. I read in the newspaper this morning I can’t for the life of me understand what the logic of that opposition is when their central leadership and everybody is engaged in making GST happen. I think the Ministers from Karnataka or Himachal were at the forefront of making  GST a success. So, maybe it’s a few stray cases of people who are trying to whip up passion for local benefit or trying to get the traders to or small business people to misunderstand the benefits of GST.

But, truly, think about it. It’s a celebration of India’s federal polity and which is why this entire credit of this new tax regime is a shared credit of the entire political system, and the entire bureaucracy of the country, and will remain a shared legacy of all of India working as team India. So, in that sense, there is complete unanimity on the tax regime, on the GST, on the structure that has been created. All decisions have been taken by the consensus in the GST Council. It’s not as if you make an appeal to me that reduce the tax rate on solar panels and I get it done from the hon’ble Finance Minister. It will have to be discussed by the GST Council and they will decide, so much as fly ash manufacturers of bricks are very concerned that, you know, our rate is whatever, 18 or 12 percent, and clay bricks are lower. Now let’s get the tax rate, and the system, the procedures out of my way. It’s no more relevant, we are not discussing that at all. We will cross the bridge as we come to it. We will find solutions. The GST Council is going to continuously engage and meet. And, just as they have been responsive so far, to whatever has been brought to their attention.

I will give you one example, you know, when the lottery thing came up, at that point they came and gave me also representation, I, obviously, forward it to the hon’ble Finance Minister. And, I am myself had forwarded it,…. Don’t even touch it with a barge pole. It is politically very sensitive and people feel that you are giving any benefit to the lottery trade, but still the GST Council discussed it, they were that fair. Main representation ke saath bol raha hoon, is ko haath mat lagao, nahi ye bohut(inaudible), par fir bhi unhone put up kiya and kuch na kuch decision liya…so that has been the level of fairness.

Of course, I hear some concerns. So, I am just trying to address each one of them as I speak, why petroleum is not there, why alcohol is not there. Now, these are things we all know, we read in the papers every day. The government wanted that this should also be a part of the regime, it could not get a consensus in the GST Council. May be it will happen after a few days, a few months, who knows.

You remember when VAT was introduced , a few states didn’t join. When they realized to their detriment that everybody’s revenues are going up, how quickly they came under the VAT regime. So, we should take the GST in that same spirit, and then it will evolve.

Let’s say, the cable manufacturers, they have been at my back all these last few weeks, ‘our rate is too high, we will die and this, blah blah blah.’ First of all, should the situation emerge? You know, they have taken care that every rate is determined with direct and the hidden taxes, cascading taxes, carefully calculated and then fit into the nearest 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%……that care has been taken to very minor detail. पर आप लोग भी तो अपना अपना व्यापार चलाते हैं, business करते हैं, छोटा सा business, छोटा बड़ा जो भी, जिसका 1000 करोड़ का हो, जिसका एक करोड़ का हो, problems तो सबकी same आती हैं |

कल में बैंगलोर में बता रहा था, when I started my small business as a small scale entrepreneur. I was very young at that time, maybe 17-18, मैंने काम से काम 100 MIDC ऑफिस मुंबई में अँधेरी में, anybody from Mumbai will know Chakala में, मैंने खुद, तभी पटेल, who is now Governor of one of the North-Eastern states was deputy CEO मैंने खुद काम से काम 100 चक्कर MIDC office में काटे, only to get an allotment of 2,930 sq mtrs of land, 100 trips, not less.

Any chartered accountants will tell you, कि कितने धक्के इनकम टैक्स ऑफिस के खाने पड़ते हैं | If somebody here is under Central Excise, I hope you will pardon me for this comment since you have come from that field, but anybody who deals with Central Excise knows and I personally  experience it ladies and gentlemen कि तुम सुबह फैक्ट्री पहुंचो और वह बाहर सफ़ेद Ambassador खड़ी हो जिसमें में वह … लगाते हैं बड़ा proudly – Central Board of Central Excise and Customs and… तो लगता है मर गए, आज पता नहीं घर रात को जायेंगे या नहीं |

We all have experienced all that, right? That’s what we are trying change. Aur Jab itna massive change, pure desh bhar mein parivartan of such a huge dimension hota hai to aap sochiye apke business ki problems aap solve karte karte raat ki need udd jati hai. To saubhavik hai ki itna bada change hoga to parivartan ko thora time dena padega, thori takleefein ayengi, hosakta hai computer system char baar crash bhi hojaye, so what!! We will find solutions. After all, a problem is only a problem till you find a solution to that problem. And, there is nothing in this world that we can’t find a solution to.

If you recall that GST ki baat Vajpayee ji ne 2002 ya 2003 mein ki thi, 2007 mein Mr Chidambaram ne shayad isko aage badhaaya, budget mein charcha ki, 2011 mein shayad kanoon laye. Par shayad vishvasniyata nahin thi isliye sabki aham sehmati nahin ban payi. Abb, Modi ji aur Jaitley ji ne sabko saath mein liya, sabke concerns ko address kiya. Ek prakar se har ek state ki apni apni domestic issues ko sambhalte hue to get such large consensus, obviously,  meaning something has been done right. After all, they are all your elected representatives, you have all voted and supported all these people in Government today – state, centre, local bodies, all of them.

So something must be right about it. So one thing, let’s be clear. The rates have been well-thought out, procedures have been debated at ……………. And, ultimately, one will have to jump in the water and learn to swim. And in that process we will fine tune our movements.  You know, they call it the butterfly movement, and this and that, all those movements will get fine tuned as we start learning to swim. Acha, suppose cable industry ka malum pade, ki bhai pehle revenue hazaar crore ata tha, teen haazar karod ho gaya, as they are claiming ki teen guna ho gaya tax. Whereas they are not realising it ki pehle cascading level pe kitne taxes the. But, suppose teen guna ho gaya, to theek hai GST Council can again sit, discuss. Reverse also holds rule. Jiska pehle 1000 crore ata tha who 300 reh gaya to punah vichar karne padega ki chori badh gayi hai ya rate theek nahin hai.

To do tarfa hota haina ye to. But let’s play it, let’s ….. And the best way to get your rate reduced is to persuade your entire industry to pay your taxes honestly. Mein kal bata raha tha ki teen prakar ke problems aate hai hum sab businessmen ko. Pehla to ye hota hai ki mein karna to nahinh chahta hoon chori par mujhe karni padti hai jabardasti. You are all comfortable with hindi na? Or I stick to English only?  I am ok with both ways. I am trying to improve my Hindi speaking skills. Pehla to vyakti wo hota hai jisko chori karni nahin hai lekin zabardasti karni padti hai – adhikariyon ko rishwat dene ke liye, politicians ko rishwat dene ke liye, kabhi kabhi biwi ke liye jewelry kharidne ke liye, jo bhi ho.

Doosra vyakti wo hota hai jo DNA mein hi uske, uske system mein hi hai ki chori karna hai, bhaiya tax nahin pay karna hai. Aur teesra vyatki wo hota hai jo anjaane mein galti karta hai, jisko ab wo dosa bechta hai Khadkogar station ke baahar, chota sa vyapaar karte karta karte usko realize nahin hua mera turnover 2 crore rupee ka ho gaya hai. Jab tak income tax ne watch rakha 30 din aur realize kiya My God, ye to 15-17 lakh rupaiy ka turnover 1 mahine mein kar gaya. 200 rupaiy ka ek dosa, kitne 500 dose ya 400 dose bech ke. They suddenly realize ye to 2 crore turnover ho gaya saal ka. Lekin usne anjaane mein kiya, gareeb aadmi, chota thela shuru kiya tha, became successful, that is the entrepreneurial spirit of India.

But look how GST impacts all three of you. GST coupled with our other measures. For example, the first type of person jo karna nahin chahta hai, karna padta hai, wo agar imandaari se apna sales invoice har ek enter kar jaye, nothing else. But itna pakka rakhe ki main ek bhi sales invoice chodunga nahin. All my sales invoices I will enter in the system. Uske baad usko koi chinta karne ki zarurat nahin, koi rishvat bhi mange, he can tell him, asli shadb to alag hai, yahan nahin use kar sakte, but get lost. Bus sales invoice imandaari se enter kare, politicians tang karein to aajkal electoral bonds lane ki kalpana hai jisse election aaye aur aaplog chahte ho ki isko support hai to election bonds deke dedo. Par kisiko maharbaani karke cash dena band karo, ab to 2000 se zyada doge cash mein to aap bhi takleef mein aawoge. If anybody is caught giving a political donation above Rs 2000, he gets into equal trouble, by the way.

So, we are trying to clean the system in an overall context. Make the nation honest, why should we not be like, maybe one of the European, Scandinavian countries with 100%-99% tax compliance. But jisko zabardasti karna padta tha wo abhi himmat se khada rahe, hamari associations unka haath thaame agar koi officer harass karta hai. Aajkal to social media badh gaya hai, tweet kardo to officer ki neend hi kharab ho jaaye, ya politician ki bhi neend kharab ho jaayegi. Sachi tweet karna, jhoota mat karna, fansa mat dena kisi ko.

But, honestly, if we only put our sales invoices into the system, after that we have nothing to worry. Ye jo bhram, … failai jaa rahi hai ki 3-3 return har mahine, 37 return har saal. Mujhe to hairani hoti hai ki itne padhe likhe log, itne associations ismain involved hai, itne saare training classes chal rahe hain TV par, sab jagah desh bhar mein, 4600 to in logon ne programmes kiye hain desh bhar mein, sab data website par hai kahan kahan hue hain. Institute of Chartered Accountants ne 200 helpline centres khole, CII, Companies Secretaries, ICWA, all are involved in giving free service.

But, there is a segment who doesn’t want to this to come. Kyunki, agar aap abhi apne sales invoice imandaari se nahin dikhaoge to bahut saralta se computer se pakda jayega, officer ki zarurat hi nahin hai. System kya design kiya hai inhone, aur bada khoobsurti se design kiya hai, I must compliment them . Har ek vyakti apna sales invoice dale aur ab to sales invoice to ham sab any case enter karte haina apne sales register mein, koi additional work nahin hai. Ulte abhi to hum koi excise ke liye alag tarike se, sales tax ke liye alag tarike se, entry tax ke liye Mumbai mein jaise New Mumbai mein hai, kai jagah hai. Alag alag cheez ke liye alag alag humne returns file karne padte hain aur alag alag entry karni padti hai.

Of course, income tax ne aaj kale k aur cheez dekhi hai, ki bank ko alag balance sheet di jaati thi, excise ko alag aur sales tax ko alag. Aur ye sab cheezon ko aakhir kabhi na kabhi to address karna padega na. To aapko sirf sales invoice enter karna hai 10 tareekh, following month ki 10 tareekh tak. Of course, pehle 2 mahine ke liye to humne September 10 tareekh ya 5^th September tak time diya hai. Thoda computer glitches, computer testing, data testing, wo bhi ho jayega, aapke bhi haath mein aajayega. Aakhir pehli baar jab email use kiya to aasan nahin tha, aajkal to cut-in, cut-out email use karte hain. To aapne ek baar sales invoice enter kar diya 10 tareekh tak, to wo automatically populate hoga as a purchase invoice jisko bhi aapne becha. To agar maine in bhai sahib ko becha 1000 rupay ka kuch samaan aur uspar 18% tax, 180 rupay lagaye, to inke number GST number mein automatically purchase register bante jaayenge. Aur 10 tareekh ke baad 11 tareekh ko jab ye dekhenge ki meri purchase register mein kya kya invoice aaye hain to inko dhyaan mein aayega ki Archana ji se bhi maine ek maal liya tha unhone to enter nahin kiya hai. To yeh turant Archana ji ko contact kar sakte hain. Ab off late to mobile call almost free hota jaa raha hai, to kharcha bhi nahin hoga agar kisi ko takleef hai phone karne mein. Aur ye thode dinon ki baat hai, ahiste ahiste ye sab zarooratein khatm ho jayenge. Archana ji bolengi maine to enter kiya tha to dhyaan mein aayega GST number theek se nahin enter kiya.

Ya, dhyaan mein aayega ki inhone enter hi nahin kiya to wo jaldi se enter kar denge nahin to pakdi jayengi. Kyunki inhone sales invoice enter karke ab ye change nahin kar sakte. System mein aagaya hai, ab they cannot have a sathghaat ki ab yaar ye enter mat kardo, ye nikaal do. They system has captured the sales invoice. To, she will have to enter the sales invoice or correct her mistake. And, if she still refuses to do that, whenever the matching takes place in the system, she will be caught ki you are not declaring your data correctly, your sales correctly.

15 tareekh tak shayad samay hai aapke paas ye matching wagaira karne ka, uske baad aapka GSTN month ka sales invoices hi haina? To wo to aapko in any case normal course mein enter karna hai, koi return nahin bharna hai, sirf sales invoices enter karne hain baaki to sab computer par automatic  ho jayega. GSTC 2A aapko automatically populate hoke purchase register ban jayegi, jo so-called second return hai jispar humein kuch nahin karna. Donon ko match karke aapki tax liability kya hai wo bhi computer se apne aap generate ho jayega, aapko to tax pay karne ki zimmedari hai sirf.

To vastav mein ye total, if I may use the word nonsense hai, this so-called false propaganda ki 3-3 return har mahine, 37 return saal ke, kaise karenge falaana dhimka. Hum main se ek bhi is room mein aisa nahin jo 100 se kam return pehle bharta hoga, alag alag tarike se, harassment ko ek minute ke liye chod bhi do tum. Aapko to ek bhi nahin bharna hai, aapko sales register maintain karna hai. To jo pehle time ke log hain unke liye to bahut spasht hai, aap 100% beimaani band karo, koi aur beimaani karta hai to whistleblower bano, aur agar whistleblower bhi nahin banne ko tayyar ho to doob maro, aur kya bol sakte hain. Kyunki aap agar apne gutka interests nahin protect karte ho to uski zimmedari sarkaar ya koi bhi adhikaari nahin le sakta.

Aur, ultimately, ek market mein 2 vyapaari chori karte hain taxes to uska impact baaki imaandar 8 vyapaariyon pe hota haina, phir competition unfair hogayi, jo imandaari se tax pay kar raha hai wo suffer karta hai, jo chori karta hai wo competitive ho jaata hai, zyada sasta hai uska samaan, uski dukaan acchi chalegi, aapki kharaab chalegi. Whistleblower bano, unko pakadwao to sabke liye level playing field ho jayega, aur level playing field mein phir business kiska grow karega, jiski quality of service acchi ho, quality of goods accha ho.

Ultimately, competition should be on your service, on the quality of your product, not on your ability to evade taxes, which is why we are trying to bring through GST. Of course, jo second category ke log hain jinko by DNA ya zabardasti chori karni hai, ye system aisa designed hai ki kidhar na kidhar uska data aajayega. Udahran ke liye, samjho truck se bhi koi maal bech rha hai aur truck wale ne .. jo bilty banti hai, whatever it’s called in English I don’t know. Bilti pahunchi nahin hai, agar wo truck ki receipt, goods receipt usne nahin banaaya kyunki you are in connivance  aur usko petrol to lagega, diesel to lagega, usko bhi laalach aayega ki main income mein kharche warche dikhaon, to kidhar na kidhar dhyaan mein aayega ki ye truck chala to tha is route par diesel bharte bharte lekin koi bilti nahin bani to gadbad kya hai?

System has been so beautifully designed, with so many checks and balances ki kidhar na kidhar chain mein, if anybody is from the steel industry, pardon me, kyunki main kal RIAL ka plant dekh ke aaya to mujhe fresh yaad hai because my family comes from the steel industry. Pehle zamaane mein kya hota tha, aur naam nahin lunga par Punjab ke kuch shahar iske liye bade famous hai, ki aap scrap bhi cash mein kharido, bijli ka bill bhi mat bharo usko rishvat do, electrodes bhi cash mein kharidlo, labour ke record to waise hi is desh mein dikhaane ki parampara hi nahin hai. Aur phir sales bhi apna cash mein karo, koi excise nahin, koi sales tax nahin, kuch nahin. To poori value chain humne master kardi thi to cheat.

Ab durbhagya se wo sab value chain mein har ek vyakti alag alag hota hai, to agar kidhar ek jagah pakde gaye to uske saath you could settle the matter. Ab chakkar kya hai ki wo value chain itni lambi hai ki usmain ek bhi jagah par kidhar kisi ne chook kar di aur system mein aagaya to aap pakde jaoge. Yahi dukh dard kuch logon ko takleef de raha hai jiske liye kuch strike bhi ho rahi hai, kuch aalochna bhi ho rahi hai, kuch demand bhi ho rahi hai ki bhaiya July 1^st ko mat shuru karo, aur defer karo, blame humein kiya jaa raha hai, ye vastavik sach bataaya maine aur hum main se is room mein ek bhi vyakti aisa na hoga, bade se bade company ka kyon na ho jisne ye donon cheezein naa face ki hon. Main third category mein nahin jaa raha hoon anjaane mein kisi ne galti ki hai to ye GSTN mein hum aisa karenge jisse naye log jo ismain judte hain aur mera andaaza hai 2 crore log ho jayenge 85 lakhs mein, ….. wo sab judein, purani baatein bhool-chook karke ab aage imandaari se kaam karein. That is our approach.

Demonetization ke time aapko yaad hoga manya pradhanmantri ji ne ye baat desh ke samaksh rakhi thi ki bhai abhi bhi mouka hai, imandaar vyavastha mein aajao, hum postmortem nahin karenge but aage ke liye imandaar ho jao. Aur ye, these are not disjointed steps ladies and gentlemen. Aap is sarkaar ke 3 varsh ka karyakaal, ek ek kaam dekhiye. Systematically, demonetization was a part of this attack on corruption and black money, but without demonetization and encouragement to join the formal sector, GST would have failed. But, if we don’t bring GST, then several of our other steps will also fail. After all, ye charcha to hota hi hai arre aajkal to cash wapis freely milta hai to demonetization se kya farak padta hai. Things are back to normal. Poore murakh hain jo is tarike se sochte hain inko abhi dhyaan hi nahin aaya hai ki pradhanmantri modi ji zara 2 step aage sochte hain, nahin to itne bade desh ke pradhanmantri, itna lokpriya pradhanmantri koi nahin ban sakta. Haan, wo to parivar se bhi nahin aate hain ki parivar ke hain isliye pradhanmantri banein hain.

So, the reality is that these are all steps in a journey and it’s an opportunity for all of us to be a part of this journey. Of course, this is a great step towards transparency – GST. It can really transform India’s economy and I have only one appeal to make for all of you, almost in conclusion, because those who have attended my programmes in the past know that I am a very talkative fellow and I like to talk a lot. So, pardon me for being a little long but I wanted to set the context of the engagement, still you can ask any questions. It’s an open house and I won’t be as rude as I sometimes can be to silly questions. I love intelligent questions but I still control my…..

But in conclusion, I just want to share one thought with all of you and I hope you will take this back to all your members since most of you are industry leaders also elected by your industry to lead your chambers, to lead your industry associations. Kabhi aap mein se kisi ne socha hai ki wo jo tax aap evade karte hain usse aap kisi gareeb ke pet pe laat mar rahe hao, kabhi aap mein se kisi ne socha hai ki jab bijli ka bill imandaari se nahin bharte hain to shayad wahi bijli imandaar vyavastha mein, agar aapne apne bijli ka bill bhara hota, DISCOM ki haalat wo nahin hoti jo aaj hai, shayad DISCOM is sthiti mein hoti ki kis garib ke ghar mein bijli pahunch sakti thi.

Kya aapne realize kiya ki aap logon mein se aur aap mein se kai logon ne mujhe vishvas hai Give It Up mein apni LPG subsidy chodi hogi. Do you realize aapne kitni badi deshbhakti ka kaam kiya hua hai LPG subsidy chod ke. Kyunki humne wo paisa koi fiscal deficit mein nahin adjust kiya, usse garibon ko muft mein LPG connection diya jaa raha hai jisse un mata bahanon ko dhunwe ki aag se apni swastha ko kharab karna aur apne poore jeevan ko kharab karna na pade. Aap sochiye, ho sakta hai ki paisa jab sarkaar ke paas aayega thodi bahut wasteful expenditure bhi ho sakta hai, ho sakta hai. Par itna to aapne dekha ki gat 3 varshon mein kaise transparency aa rahi hain, bhrashtachar khatm ho raha hai, kaise honest government chal sakti hai, kaise public welfare sarkaar ka Kendra bindu ho sakta hai, gareeb kalyan ek prakar se ……………… ki tarah log sarkaar mein dekh sakte hain ki garibon ka jeevan kaise sudhre, garibon ka bhavishya kaise behtar ho.

Aur jab hm tax pay karte hain mujhe ek-do jagah pata nahin kisi ne poocha tha, I don’t remember, kis occasion par, shayad demonetization ke time par hi. Some traders, or some associations had come to me. And one of them asked me, ‘mere ko kya incentive hai, why should I pay my taxes, mujhe kya milna hai? Har ek cheez hum life mein khud apne liye kuch milne ke liye to nahin karte haina? Aisa hi kuch ho to phir, Finance Minister ko kya mila, 100 karod se zyada unke practice mein har saal kama sakte the. Kabhi kabhi to ye bhi sochna padega ki maine kya diya aur meri wajah se kya hua. Aakhir hum mein se bhi kai log kuch na kuch, koi na koi gaon se aate honge, kabhi Bangalore mein main baat kar raha tha to shayad mere ek adhikari mere saath the jo bata rahe the ki wo khud kerosene lamp mein padhke apni poore taleem, apni poori education unhone payi hai.

My own father studied under a street light. My grandmother, and I am not ashamed to say it, had to work as a domestic help so that my father could study, and so that I can possibly be where I am. Someday we will have to all think. What is our contribution to nation? Hum bahut gaali dete hain, desh ka bura haal hai, gandagi hai, bhrashtachar hai, gareebi hai, koi sadak pe aajata hai gareeb to usko hakaal ke gaadi se bhagaate hain, usko accha nahin lagta hai wo aapse bheek mangna, koi slums mein rehta hai, usko accha nahin lagta hai slums mein rehna usko bhi ek izzatdaar, acche ghar mein rehne ki iksha rehti hai. Aur aajkal to accountability, transparency itni hai ki sarkaarein bhi jo aap tax pay karte ho uske liye jawabdaar rehte hain, they have to give an account for every rupee they spend. CAG, CBI, CBC to karega ye kaam, wo nahin karenge to Arnab Goswami baaki kaam karenge, ya Times Now wale kaam karenge, ya India Today wale kaam karenge.

But, honestly, reflect on do you want to be a part of the making of developed India, and can we develop India unless it’s a team effort of each one of us. Can Prime Minister Modi or each of their 28 Chief Ministers, and Union Territory heads develop India without the support of each one of us in this room. It could be officials, it could be businessmen, it could be manufacturers, traders, service providers, anybody. Ultlimately, if you have to create new opportunities for business, expand the economy, expand the business, expand public spending, encourage foreign investment in this country, we will have to bring competitiveness. We will have to bring equality, honesty, integrity, transparency, it’s only then that we can truly create a robust foundation on the back of which India will develop not only as a great nation, not only as an economically great nation but truly as a superpower, as a sone ki chidiya, that each one of us in our………………..

Ends.

 

Since early morning we spent half an hour together, discussing various aspects of the new GST Regime which will be rolled out from the 1st of July. Very interesting questions and comments came out of this engagement, most issues were of technical nature which we could resolve across the table, we had representatives of the Ministry of Finance who joined us in the discussion, a couple of issues where we felt a little more consultation may be called for with the GST council have emerged, but all in all the broad picture out of this  engagement shows a) not a single participant in the room requested for deferment of July 1st rollout. Everybody, in fact many participants welcomed that we have decided to roll it from 1st July, the approach being that whether you do it 1st July, today, or September, or next year, there will be a transition period which we are all prepared to face, just like the people of India stood stoutly behind a good measure to eliminate corruption and black money, that was demonetisation, everybody unanimously believe that this is the big step forward, as they say ‘Great Step towards Transparency – GST’ and in that all the industry welcomed it. They are happy that the country is moving towards a regime which will almost eliminate the possibility of illegal transactions.

There are so many checks and balances in the wonderful program that is been prepared by the GSTian by which possibility of cheating or evading taxes is almost minimalised. That was largely welcomed by all the participants in the room today, they extended their felicitation to all the state chief ministers, finance ministers, who are members of GST council and also those parties which may not be in power in any of the states or centre, but also unanimously supported this, either in parliament or state legislatures. So it is truly the biggest reform that has ever happened in independent India and the biggest reform with 100% unanimity amongst the entire political establishment. So example of federal co-operative and collaborative federalism at its best, that was the sense that came out of the discussions. All the various sectors had certain technical issues, which were largely resolved across the table.

I believe at least those people who are looking for an honest tax regime are welcoming this wholeheartedly, there are a few elements in trade and industry who possibly have certain concerns because their old style of working will now have to change, and therefore, not at least in these four ministries, but may be outside, there may be some elements who may have some concerns, but we are happy to discuss with them to talk to anybody. The honorable Finance minister is happy to talk to them, some of our ministers have made ourselves available to any organisation which needs to discuss and seek any more clarity. The important thing is, that the regime has been made so simple, for tax payers up to 20 lakhs, no registration also not required, 20-75 lakhs manufactures composition scheme, only 2% GST, trades only 1% GST, so all the small traders and manufactures have been given so much relief that compared to the past this is far better. For all the others beyond 75 lakhs, earlier they have to file return in every department, there was assessment done by every department separately, there was sometimes harassment and terrorism of authorities, discretion was available in different ways, all of that have been eliminated, and the good part is that now assesses have to only enter their sales invoice, once they enter their sales invoice, after that we have to do nothing, the rest of the data is auto populated. Your GST and return are auto populated.

So this is the complete misinformation campaign that people have to file 37 returns, 3 return every month, this is complete nonsense. And, misinformation spread by some vested elements who don’t want to come under the honest tax regime. The reality is that earlier, and I have been a businessman myself, a consultant myself, an investment banker myself, and before that I have run industry myself. We used to harassed by income tax separately, by sales tax separately, which is now VAT, by excise, by customs. Under the new regime, all of that be a history. I only have to make one sales register, honestly. After that the purchase registers will be auto populated and generated, return is simplified, tax rates are simplified under the HSN code, so my mind what has been prepared is an outstanding GSTian system which will hold this country in good state, any transition or any transformation of such a big nature takes a little time to mature. There will be certain teething troubles, for which I’m sure the honest people of India who stand to benefit from this, the honest traders and small scale manufacturers and businessmen of India, who stand to hugely benefit from this, stand with the central government and the state governments and all the people who have supported GST and its introduction wholeheartedly. Thank you very much.

Q&A

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: I was wondering who will ask the first question which I expected to be this. There are 2 main issues on which I believe some more clarity will help. One is on the utilisation of fly ash, because it is an environmentally-friendly product and we want to encourage the utilisation of fly ash, I have requested that in the next GST council, whenever it takes place, once we flag on this issue, but I’m not in favour of a separate classification, because after that people will start misusing They will use 5-10% fly ash and call every product coming out of fly ash. So it will have to be carefully considered, but there cannot be one size fits all formula for fly ash. In the cable industry, in a certain sector it has been kept at 28%, we may request the GST and council to try and relook that one particular industry because it has 2 regimes, 18% and 28%, and may unnecessarily result in discrimination between the participants of the same sector.

Having said that, in both these sectors, the people have agreed that from 1st July they will start paying taxes at the current rate, that will also give us data whether really from the past this tax rate has become inordinately high. So with that, armed with that data of 3 or 6 months it will become easier to access whether any particular industry there is been a unfair increase in tax rates. We can easily check from the data of the tax collected prior to 1st July and the tax collected post 1st July. So I have asked all industry participants to honestly pay their taxes. If there are people who are cheating their taxes to become whistleblowers to inform the department, because those who are cheating taxes are actually harming the honest tax payers, and they are also harming the Indian economy, after all the money that is generated from GST will be used by the centre and the states to serve the poor of India. Ye bhi gareeb kalyan ka ek measure hai. Ye bhi ek tareeka hai jisse imandaar vyakti apna tax bharenge, jo sakarein imandaari se janta ki sewa me laga sake. To mujhe lagta hai ye 2 main issues the, solar pe 1 chota sa issue tha, contract vs solar panels alone, vo lagbhag humne resolve kar diya hai aaj. Me alag se byte nhi dunga, jo pochna hai yahi pooch lo.

 

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: Mujhe isme koi power tariff badne ka aasar nhi dikhta hai. Koi kidher 1-2 paise jada ho, kidher 1-2 paise kam ho utna hi farak padega.  

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: They have written to the state government and I have also received a representation from the state government, but this is really a matter, as procurers, between the states and the companies to sought out, but as a responsible part government in the country central government is willing to play the role of facilitator to bring all the stakeholders on the table so that an informed, considered view can be taken in the best interest of the common man, in the best interest of the people of India.

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: No, they can seek the intervention of everybody but it is ultimately a matter between the procurers and the suppliers, but we are not sitting with blinkers or eyes closed or blind-folded, we are also conscious of the issues and we will have to ultimately protect the interest of the common consumer so that the power tariffs through an indirect route don’t increase for the common man or the DISCOMs.

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: Wo case to case differ karega or jaha jaha uska benefit ho sakta hai vo appropriate regulatory commission uska benefit pass on karegi. Jaise kabhi koi cheez badti hai to change in law k tehet policy me pravdhan hai ki uska impact mitigate kiya jayega, vaise hi jab koi cheez ghat ti hai to vo bhi appropriate commission, or mein kal forum of regulators se iske vishay me charcha karne wala hu.

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: There is no question of my comfort or discomfort. I have no role in that.

Q. (Not audible)
Ans: We have facilitated a discussion amongst all the stakeholders, only to bring all the issues on the table, just like I had facilitated a discussion in Teesta in Sikkim, and many of you who have been covering it are aware that thanks to just our facilitation, me sitting in the room and getting them to talk to each other, we were able to solve an issue where 9,000 crores were invested, 90% complete project, but was stalled, we were able to get them on the table, talk to each other, find a solution in the interest of India and the people of the north-east and you are all aware that 12,000 MW power is being generated from Teesta, since March, which is going to serve the people of north-east with the availability of cheaper local power. So I think, our approach in this matter is one of ultimately what will help the common man, the poor man get low cost affordable power. Thank You.