Nuclear Liability Bill likely to be tabled tomorrow
Union cabinet has cleared changes to a bill aimed at opening up the country’s US $150 billion nuclear power market. The bill is likely to be placed in parliament tomorrow, a minister said.
A parliamentary panel on Wednesday recommended changes to the bill, including trebling accident compensation and extending liability to private firms. The changes suggested by the panel have been approved by the cabinet,” the minister, who declined to be identified, told reporters.
The cabinet said there will make a minor amendment to the bill on Saturday after the opposition BJP raised fresh objections. The BJP, which backed the panel’s recommendation, objects to the addition of a word in the reworked bill that makes the supplier liable in case of an accident only if the operator and the supplier had a prior agreement to that effect.
Another minister said the cabinet had taken note of the BJP’s objections.
“We will make a minor change to it,” said minister Prithviraj Chavan.
If passed, the bill will help open up the nuclear power market to firms such as US-based General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, who are reluctant to step in without clarity on accident compensation.
India’s nuclear power sector is tightly controlled and there is only one state-run operator. The panel suggested that the liability cap on the operator be fixed at US $320 million, while giving it the option to claim compensation from private firms if a defect in their nuclear gear causes an accident. State compensation, or the liability burden on the federal government, is estimated at the equivalent of 300 million special drawing rights, which will be over and above the operator compensation.
The government decided to set up a panel to examine the bill following protests by the opposition who said the original draft pegged the compensation liability of the operator too low at about US $110 million, almost 23 times less than that of an operator in the United States.
Agencies
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