By Rajesh Kumar Singh and Abhijit Roy Chowdhury - Aug 17, 2012
Bloomberg
India’s policy of giving away coal mines without auction may have cost the government 1.86 trillion rupees ($33 billion), the state auditor said.
The report, presented in the parliament today, said the coal mines gave undue benefit to non-government companies. An earlier report had estimated the loss at 10.7 trillion rupees, The Times of India said in a March 22 report, triggering a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The report comes at a time when the government is battling a series of graft charges that have slowed down decision making and impeded reforms. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in charge of the coal ministry for part of the period under review, has been personally blamed by opposition parties for the loss.
“One can’t compare the valuation of an operational mine with an unexplored mine, as the mining risks are exponentially high at the beginning,” Debasish Mishra, a senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt., said before the report was released. “Whichever mines were allocated for captive use to companies had no reliable data on reserves.”
A report by the state auditor on issuance of phone permits led to the country’s biggest corruption probe and the arrests of government and company officials and a cabinet minister.
Bloomberg
India’s policy of giving away coal mines without auction may have cost the government 1.86 trillion rupees ($33 billion), the state auditor said.
The report, presented in the parliament today, said the coal mines gave undue benefit to non-government companies. An earlier report had estimated the loss at 10.7 trillion rupees, The Times of India said in a March 22 report, triggering a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The report comes at a time when the government is battling a series of graft charges that have slowed down decision making and impeded reforms. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in charge of the coal ministry for part of the period under review, has been personally blamed by opposition parties for the loss.
“One can’t compare the valuation of an operational mine with an unexplored mine, as the mining risks are exponentially high at the beginning,” Debasish Mishra, a senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt., said before the report was released. “Whichever mines were allocated for captive use to companies had no reliable data on reserves.”
A report by the state auditor on issuance of phone permits led to the country’s biggest corruption probe and the arrests of government and company officials and a cabinet minister.
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