Claiming that it had done no wrong, Reliance Power Limited (RPL), on Friday, said the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) had taken the decision to allow the company to use surplus coal from its three allocated mines for the 4,000 MW Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) in 2008 and again ratified it in April 2012.
“The decision of permitting use of surplus coal for power generation has been ratified by EGoM on two separate occasions (once in 2008 and again in 2012), and the decision has been implemented,” the company said in a statement.
The RPL statement comes in the wake of tabling a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in Parliament.
The EGoM, headed by then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had arrived at this decision after taking the opinion of the Attorney- General, and had reaffirmed its decision in April, 2012. As such, the decision to permit usage of surplus coal from Sasan UMPP was a well considered one and need not be revised, the statement added. The EGoM had permitted RPL to divert excess coal from the three mines — Moher, Moher Amlohri and Chhatrasal in Madhya Pradesh — to another project, Chitrangi, in the state.
“Reliance Power had no role in the allotment of coal reserves to Sasan UMPP — coal blocks allotted months before bid submission in December 2006,’’ the statement said. The CAG had flayed the post-bid concessions to RPL. It stated that RPL had got undue benefit to the tune of Rs.29,033 crore when the government allowed use of surplus coal from blocks allotted to Sasan plant for its other projects. CAG said the permission to use excess coal from Moher, Moher Amlohri and Chhatrasal blocks allocated to Reliance Power’s Sasan power project after its award not only vitiated the bidding process but also resulted in undue benefit to the company. “There is no vitiation of bid conditions as the bid documents gave the right to government to permit use of surplus coal,” RPL said.
