New legislation aimed at throwing open India's lucrative 150-billion-dollar civilian atomic energy market could deter private suppliers because of tough provisions, business groups said Thursday.
The nuclear liability bill, key to implementing a 2008 flagship atomic energy pact with the United States that granted India access to foreign civilian technology, was passed by lawmakers late Wednesday after the government conceded to opposition demands to toughen the law.
But business groups say the bill, intended to give private firms such as US-based General Electric access to India, could throw new hurdles in the way of the energy-hungry country's nascent nuclear power sector.
They have zeroed in on a clause in the bill that would allow nuclear power plant operators to pursue suppliers of equipment, raw materials and services for 80 year after the construction of any plant in the event of an accident.
The legislation threatens to hamper India's "nuclear renaissance and completely undo the government?s efforts to accelerate nuclear power generation in our country," said the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in a statement.
"This will surely affect our generation capacity," FICCI economic advisor Anjan Roy told AFP. "The bill has put very extended obligations on suppliers."
On Wednesday, Premier Manmohan Singh said the measure would end a decades-old "nuclear apartheid" that had prevented India from buying reactors and nuclear fuel abroad, after it conducted nuclear tests in the early 1970s.
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