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Working group for drafting mandate for negotiations on energy services set up

The Confederation of Indian Industry, in association with the ministries of commerce and power, is setting up a working group to come up with a mandate for negotiations on energy services in World Trade Organisation.

Besides representatives from the concerned ministries, the working group would constitute of members from NTPC, NHPC, Power Grid, TERI, CII and other organisations in the energy sector.

The working group, according to CII, would extensively look into the issues pertaining to India's energy services and evolve a roadmap for the sector.

Setting up of such a group was mooted in a workshop on 'Negotiation on Energy Services in context of Power sector vis-à-vis WTO' organised by CII in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Anil Razdan, joint secretary, ministry of power, in his address, lauded CII's effort for organising the forum in order to generate awareness among the industry on what should be India's perspective and stand related to energy services at WTO.

He suggested that more such workshops to include other segments of the energy sector, like oil, gas, hydro, etc be held.

P K Srivastava, deputy secretary, ministry of commerce, elaborating on the provisions of the GATS agreement, stated that while the mandate of the negotiations have been clearly laid out in Part IV of GATS entitled 'Progressive liberalisation', the main aim of these negotiations was to achieve greater degree of liberalisaton in all service sectors and in all the four modes of supply of services.

Talking on the proposal on 'liberalisation of movement of professionals' submitted by India, Srivastava said that India has suggested several measures for removal of existing limitations on movement of professionals.

The suggestions include need for establishment of multilateral norms to reduce the scope for discriminatory practices in use of economic needs test, exemption from payment of social security contributions, more transparent administration of visa regime among others, he added.

V Raghuraman, senior adviser, energy, CII, stated that with the global energy consumption projected to rise 60 per cent in 20 years and two-thirds increase in the developing nations, it assumed great significance for India to draw a mandate for WTO negotiations in the area.

"The thriving energy sector demands a host of energy services and is critical to economic well-being and living standards to serve 2 billion people with no access to commercial energy. Despite this, energy services did not have a discrete classification under WTO sectoral classification list," he said.

He stressed setting up of an independent regulatory system separate from and not accountable to any supplier of energy services. He also called for fair, objective and timely procedures for allocation of scarce resources, such as transmission capacity and rights of way.

T K Bhaumik, senior adviser, CII elucidating the provisions of the GATT agreement, urged the member states to make continuous efforts to open up the services sector.

He stressed the need to define all the elements pertaining to the power sector services and identifying core strengths.

T S Vishwanath, consultant - international trade, CII, elaborating on the scope of energy services with respect to WTO stated that energy services were largely omitted from the Uruguay round because it was in its infancy then. The sector was still under the control state monopolies, he added.

"Having realised this, the Centre and the states were working to bring up efficiency of transmission and distribution sector," he added.

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