Jagdish Bhalla, J. - (1.) The petitioner No. 1 is a forum primarily involved in safeguarding the national interest with respect to protecting Swadeshi products which is evident from the title of the organization itself. The petitioner has approached this Court for national interest to protect misuse of the public fund in the name of various incentives, concession and amenities provided for purchasing foreign machinery particularly with respect to non-conventional energy resources as a measure of development through wind mills. The Wind Energy Sector enjoys the package of incentives as under :-( i) Concessions under Income-tax, (ii) Exemptions from Customs and Central Excise duties, (iii) IRDEA (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd.), the corporate financing arm of MNES (Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources) provides finance at concessional rate of interest to Wind Mill Projects. (iv) The State Government offering exemptions under the provisions of Sales Tax. (v) Entrepreneur being provided special incentives in their huge investment made in Wind Firm Project. (vi) Wind Mill Projects are integrated with State Electricity Grid and Utilities have established huge infrastructure like sub-stations, power lines etc. at enormous cost. (vii) Various States including the State of U.P. have granted incentives for establishing industries in backward areas and hills wherein electricity is given in very concessional rates. (viii) The State of U.P. through U.P. Industrial Development Corporation has been allotting land on concessional rates for establishment of such industries and some other States have made arrangement granting land to the projects through Finance Companies.
(2.) By means of the above incentives and concessions the Government Policy is to promote Wind Power Projects to generate power from Wind sources. This effort of the Government is appreciable in view of the fact that the country is facing acute shortage of power but the manner in which the above schemes are being implemented by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources are against the interest of the nation. In this regard the petitioner-forum has suggested the following measures :-( a) Any new model imported from any part of the world or manufactured in India should be made to undergo a trial run for a minimum period of five years in India and its performance should be assessed before approval for commercial operations. The performance should be based on the actual date recorded by utilities. (b) Machines which have not undergone the trial run should not be made eligible for any incentive package by both the State and the Central Government. (c) The Government Company should not provide any loan at concessional rate of interest for machines which have not undergo the mandatory trial run of five years. (d) Customs or Central excise duty exemptions should not be provided for untested unproven machines in India.
(3.) The petitioner No. 1 had earlier approached this Court by filing Writ Petition No. 892 (MB) of 2000 alleging that defective machines are being dumped in India in the name of international market as a result of which the India has become dumping ground for such foreign machines. For purchase of such machines a lot of incentives, concessions and amenities are being provided to the Indian businessmen which are being misused by them.;