[PHNOM PENH POST]
The opposition has raised conflict-of-interest concerns over another
agreement headed to the National Assembly today guaranteeing the
government will buy electricity from a power plant to be constructed by a
company owned by ruling party Senator Lao Meng Khin.
However, it
was unclear yesterday whether the guarantee to buy electricity from a
135 megawatt, US$181 million coal-fired plant to be built by Cambodia
International Investment Development Group Co Ltd in Preah Sihanouk
province is new or part of an existing deal.
In June the
National Assembly passed an agreement, after gagging opposition
questions, guaranteeing the government would buy electricity from a 270
megawatt plant to be built by the firm at a price observers said
appeared to be the highest for power seen in Cambodia – 8.43 cents per
kilowatt hour.
The duration and tax exemptions in that deal were identical to those in the guarantee headed to the National Assembly today.
In
August the Post reported that Chinese government documents revealed
CIIDG, and its Chinese partner Mongolia Erdos Hongjun Holding Group,
planned to begin building two 135-megwatt power plants (270 megawatts in
total) in Sihanoukville in April, 2012 at a cost of $383 million.
This followed approval last December for CIIDG to construct and operate a $362 mill-ion plant in the same province.
Mu
Sochua said it was not clear if the deal was new or part of an existing
agreement, but added she did not understand why the same guarantee
would be sent to the assembly twice.
“We still have the same
concerns that the public will pay for this and the quality of the
coal . . . will badly affect the environment,” she said.
The
most recently obtained guarantee, signed by Prime Minster Hun Sen on
August 29, sets the purchase price again at 8.43 cents per
kilowatt-hour.
It grants CIIDG a 33-year build/own/operate
licence, with a nine-year exemption from value-added tax, estimating the
plant will produce 895 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year –
worth about $4.6 million in revenue to the state in tax a year.
Sam
Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay called the deal “unbelievable” and said
awarding such a licence to a firm linked to a government senator
smacked of endemic corruption.
“It’s become a habit now. And
the CPP [Cambodian People’s Party] will no doubt raise their hands
following the prime minister, but the opposition cannot support this bad
deal made behind closed doors,” he said.
Ek Tha, a deputy
director of the press unit at the Council of Ministers, said Cambodian
firms needed to develop infrastructure and could not just wait “for the
outsiders to help us all the time”.
“We do not want to hear that
some investors are complaining about the high cost of electricity in
Cambodia compared to neighbouring countries. That is why we cannot just
stand and watch as foreign investors might shift to other countries.”
Son
Chhay called for an independent environmental impact assessment. “It’s a
tourist destination, it could pollute the area and ruin the tourist
business.”
The contract provides scant detail on the plant’s
location, but Ith Prang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry
Mines and Energy, said it would be in Stung Hao district.
Electricity
from the plant would be sold to the wholly state-owned Electricité du
Cambodge through a power purchasing agreement.
Erdos and Lao Meng
Khin’s Shukaku group are the developers of the controversial Boeung Kak
development, which has displaced thousands of families without proper
compensation.
Erdos declined to comment yesterday and Lao Meng Khin could not be reached.
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