NELP-VIII to be re-launched in Mumbai on Aug 8: Sources

The New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) VIII is likely to be re-launched in Mumbai on August 8, reports CNBC-TV18's Nayantara Rai, quoting sources. Tthe road shows are likely to be carried on in London on August 13 and 14.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Nayantara Rai's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

What we are picking up from highly reliable sources is that NELP VIII is likely to be re-launched in August 8. The road shows will continue in London on August 13 and 14, after they were supposed to go to Washington. But we understand that has now being shifted to Houston.

On April 9 2009, NELP VIII had been launched but then it was stalled on account of seeking more clarity for tax break. But, this budget, we saw Pranab Mukherjee announcing that there would be a seven-year tax holiday for oil and natural gas under NELP VIII and this is why NELP VIII is being re-launched.

Now when the tax holiday was not available natural gas the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had projected receiving commitments of almost USD 3 billion under NELP VIII. But now that the tax holiday has been reinstated perhaps that number should go up. However another key concern, we have been speaking to a lot of analysts, is that at a time when first six tranche of NELP tax breaks were on oil and natural gas but we saw that changing in 2008 when the tax holiday on natural gas was removed, so investors are still jittery that, "Fine, we may have tax holiday today, but what's to stop the government from removing this tax holidays in the future?"