Comments
Refuting the charges made by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, the government denied that it had sought the quashing of proceedings against Adani Enterprise Limited (AEL).
A highly-placed source said, “It is factually incorrect that whenever a probe is initiated against Adani Enterprise Ltd (AEL), the probe is immediately quashed by the Government of India.”
The official was responding to accusations that the Centre extended undue favours to the Adani Group.
“On the contrary, three show-cause notices, involving various transactions, were issued during 2014-2016 and after adjudication of two cases, the orders — in-original — were reviewed by a Committee of Chief Commissioners of Customs in August 2017 and October 2017, respectively. Subsequently, appeals were filed before the Mumbai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in November 2017 and February 2018, respectively. It is noteworthy that the cases under investigation primarily pertain to the period of UPA government, ie 2010 onwards,” the official said.
“The matter is sub-judice and the cases are pending before the Tribunal for adjudication. The process is quasi-judicial in nature,” he added.
Ramesh had alleged that the notice issued by the Department of Revenue Intelligence to AEL had been closed. The DRI was investigating allegations of over-invoicing of imported coal to drive up electricity tariffs by power generation companies.
“The DRI has been investigating the cases of coal import involving 40 coal importers including the Adani Enterprise Ltd. covering the imports during January 1, 2010 to March 31, 2016. In this context, DRI has requested the Government of Singapore for certain information/documents under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) after obtaining approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The alleged irregularities under investigation in coal import are spread over different periods of time and involve many companies and as on date it is not finally adjudicated,” the government official said.
In this context, the notices were issued to Adani Enterprise Limited, out of which two notices were adjudicated by the competent authority in favour of the company. The orders were reviewed, and on the contrary, the government filed appeals before the Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT).
The other cases are still under the process of investigation/adjudication, the official added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.