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The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) final report on coal block allocations will be tabled in Parliament on Thursday.
Besides this, two other reports – implementation of public-private partnership in IGI Airport and Ultra Mega Power Projects through Special Purpose Vehicle route – will also be tabled.
If the draft report on coal block allocations was any indication, then the UPA Government has something to worry about.
In the draft report, the Government auditor had said that allocation of 155 coal acreages between 2004 and 2009 to about 100 companies resulted in a notional loss of Rs 10.7 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Besides, it had pointed at the undue benefit given to the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power Ltd, which was estimated to have made around Rs 15,849 crore over 25 years because of surplus coal from Sasan and Tilaiya ultra mega power projects. The actual amount of gain may be different, based on actual extractable quantity, cost of extraction and transfer price.
Reliance Power had written to the CAG, Vinod Rai, stating that its observations in the draft audit pertaining to surplus coal from Sasan and Tilaiya ultra mega power projects could be dropped.
An Empowered Group of Ministers, which had gone into CAG’s observations in the draft, had noted that there was no change of conditions for awarding the Sasan UMPP bid.
It said a consolidated policy would be framed for the usage of surplus coal from UMPPs based on which permission would be granted to Tilaiya UMPP.
IGI Airport
The CAG draft report had claimed that the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) was given land at a highly concessional lease rent. DIAL is a joint venture consortium in which the GMR group holds 54 per cent, Airports Authority of India (AAI) 26 per cent, Frankfurt and Malaysian airports 10 per cent each.
With equity contribution of Rs 2,450 crore, of which the private consortium share was Rs 1,813 crore, DIAL got Delhi airport for 60 years. It also got commercial land rights worth Rs 24,000 crore with the potential of earning Rs 1,63,557 crore. The draft CAG report said that DIAL was leased 4,799.09 acre by the AAI, of which 239.95 acres were allowed for commercial exploitation for Rs 100 a year.
It remains to be seen whether the final report will touch upon these contentious issues.
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