MUMBAI, SEPT 22: The Congress fired another salvo at the multinational Enron for `managing' a deal that will cost the national exchequer an annual loss of $35 million for ten years. Congress leader and Maharashtra campaign in-charge Suresh Kalmadi today declared the Union Ministry of Surface Transport (MST) had withdrawn its earlier objections paving the way for Enron to hire an LNG tanker at a chartering fee of $98,000 a day which was way above other bidders.Enron's Dabhol Power Company in the State has been granted permission to charter an LNG tanker since the company's multi-crore power project is scheduled to operate on LNG after completion of Phase II. The charter fee is a rip-off because the estimates made by surface transport ministry and director general (shipping) put the figure at around $72,000 a day and Indian bidders had even quoted as low as $65,000 a day, Kalmadi stated.
What is intriguing, he pointed out, was that the DG (shipping) and MST had objected to the Enron proposal on account ofits high cost and the Reserve Bank of India had sent back the proposal stating that the amount needed to be certified by the ministry. However, the ministry withdrew its objections allowing the proposal to be cleared by the RBI, he added. The clearance was apparently given last week.
The LNG will eventually be used in the Dabhol project which will increase the per unit price of power supplied to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board all over again, Kalmadi stated. `What has happened is clearly a case of over-invoicing and a straight loss to the exchequer.'
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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