Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Act, 2012
No: 22 Dated: May, 31 2012
THE TAMIL NADU INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT ACT, 2012
(Act No. 22 of 2012)
An Act to provide for an enabling and facilitative environment in the State for financing, design, construction, maintenance and operation of Infrastructure projects also through private sector participation, and to provide for an institutional framework for identification, prioritisation and implementation of such projects and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Sixty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows :-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent, application and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Act, 2012.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.
(3) It shall apply to all Projects of a value exceeding rupees five hundred crore implemented by a public agency:
Provided that the Government may, by general or special order, apply the provisions of this Act, to any public-private partnership project, the project value of which is less than rupees five hundred crore:
Provided further that it shall not apply to any Project undertaken by the Central Government or a public sector undertaking of the Central Government, either independently or as a joint venture with the State Government.
Explanation. - For the purpose of this sub-section, in the case of a public-private partnership project, "project value" means, where the private sector participant is, -
(a) required to make capital investment, the value of the asset or facility to be created including the cost of land, if the cost of the land is to be borne by the private sector participant; or
(b) not required to make capital investment, the current replacement value of the asset or facility, whose operation and maintenance shall be the responsibility of the private sector participant.
(4) It shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification, appoint.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a) "administrative department" means the department of the Secretariat which is administratively concerned with a Project as per the Tamil Nadu Government Business Rules, 1978, and more than one department may also be administratively concerned with a Project;
(b) "Board" means the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board established under section 3 of this Act;
(c) "concessionaire" means the private sector participant which has entered into a public-private partnership;
(d) "concession agreement" means an agreement entered into between a public agency and a private sector participant for and in respect of a public-private partnership;
(e) "detailed Project study" means a detailed study of the Project made after the preliminary investment decision, in order to ascertain the capital cost, technological parameters, description of the technology to be used, technical specifications, plan schedule to assist the financial investment and the plan for implementation of the Project and such other information as may be prescribed in the regulations;
(f) "feasibility study" means a preliminary study made for investment decision-making, to assess the technical, social, economic and financial viability and the social and environmental impact of a Project including the demand for the services, appropriate technology to be adopted, capital cost, time required for implementation, and such other information as may be prescribed in the regulations;
(g) "Government" means the State Government;
(h) "Government company" means any company in which not less than fifty-one per cent of the paid-up share capital is held by the State Government or Governments and includes a company which is a subsidiary of a Government company as thus defined;
(i) "Infrastructure" means provision of assets or services in any one or more of the sectors specified in Schedule-I;
(j) "Local authority" means any municipal corporation or municipal council or panchayat union council or village panchayat constituted under the relevant law for the time being in force;
(k) "private sector participant" means any person other than a public agency or the Central Government or a public sector undertaking of the Central Government;
(l) "Project" means an Infrastructure Project;
(m) "public-private partnership" means an arrangement between a public agency and a private sector participant for the provision of infrastructure through investment made or through design, development, construction, maintenance or operation undertaken by the private sector participant, where risks are allocated between them such that the private sector participant takes on the risk beyond the stage of design and construction and the payment for the services are performance linked, in the form of user charges, annuities or unitary payment;
(n) "public-private partnership project" means a Project implemented through public-private partnership;
(o) "public agency" means any department of the Government or any public sector undertaking of the Government, a Government Company, Statutory Board formed by the Government, Local authority, Co-operative Institution, State University, any Society or Trust formed, owned or controlled by the Government;
(p) "public financial support" means financial support from the Central Government or the State support or both;
(q) "public sector mode" means implementation of a Project directly by a public agency by it's own resources or through the State Budgetary resources;
(r) "regulations" mean the regulations made by the Board under this Act;
(s) "rules" mean the rules made by the Government under this Act;
(t) "Schedule" means a Schedule, appended to this Act;
(u) "sponsoring agency" means the public agency designated by the Board to implement a Project through public-private partnership;
(v) "State support" means the support extended by the Government to a concessionaire, which may include the following :-
(i) subsidy or capital grant not exceeding such proportion of the cost of the Project, as may be prescribed in the rules;
(ii) equity;
(iii) loans;
(iv) guarantee by the Government;
(v) opening and operation of escrow account;
(vi) conferment of right to develop any land;
(vii) incentives in the form of exemption from the payment of, or deferred payment of, any tax or fees levied under any law or such other incentives, as may be prescribed in the rules.
(w) "Tender Act" means the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998 (Tamil Nadu Act 43 of 1998);
(x) "user levy" means user charge or fee or any other amount, by whatever name called, payable by the user of an infrastructure facility.