Jindal Steel and Power Chairman Naveen Jindal, on Thursday, came out publicly against blanket cancellation of coal mines allocation by claiming that Rs.4-lakh crore worth of investment would be in jeopardy.
“The total investment to develop these blocks is around Rs.4-lakh crore out of which Rs.2.5-lakh crore is bank loan. If we term the government’s coal allocation policy as faulty and illegal, then the effort put in by the investors to revive the discarded mines of Coal India would be in jeopardy,” he said at a conference on Mining and Metal.
Mr. Jindal was reacting to the August 25 Supreme Court order that held that the allocation of 218 blocks in the pre-auction phase was done via an ad-hoc and casual approach ‘without application of mind’.
Pointing out that his company was doing mining of coal in Australia, Indonesia, Mozambique and South Africa, Mr. Jindal said that these countries gave coal blocks on lease and companies gave royalty to the government.
The Indian government, he feels, charges the maximum royalty on coal and iron ore in the world.
