Participants at the meet said that tax reliefs should be provided on spare parts used in a wind farm. "As per the policy, wind turbines are exempt from sales tax. However, to set up power generation units, other equipment required to be assembled at the site and purchase of these too must be entitled to sales tax exemption," an investor said.

Maharashtra sales tax commissioner Subodh Kumar said as there are equipment which can be used in other industry, a blanket exemption is not possible. He said he would consider granting this relief on equipment meant for wind power plants.

According to the policy, the tax benefits can be passed on to an associate company whose definition is yet to be established. An explanation will be made in a few months, Kumar said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra is gearing up to set up the required infrastructure for evacuating power from these plants. The Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) in a recent meeting decided to jointly establish a transmission network in the next two years.

The state plans to invest around Rs 14 crore for the purpose, MSEB secretary Pramod Deo said. To achieve the objective, MEDA will immediately transfer the Rs 6 crore it has already generated.

There is large scope for generating power through wind power plants, ministry of non-conventional energy sources secretary CR Kamalanathan said. Since the creation of the separate ministry for the non-conventional energy resources, the centre has been emphasising on generation of power through these environment-friendly fuels.

"Against the target of 600mw for the Eighth Plan, a capacity of about 1050mw was added, mostly by the private sector. Of the total installed capacity of power from renewables of nearly 1350mw, around 1000mw has been through the wind energy, Kamalanathan said.

To encourage investment in the sector, the government has introduced a package of incentives which includes tax concessions such as 100 per cent acceleration depreciation, tax holidays, soft loans, customs and excise duty relief and liberalised foreign investment procedures.