Tangedco asked to pay extra Rs 300 cr to SICL: NGO

In a letter to Tangedco’s board of directors comprising senior officials from finance and electricity department, Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor lyakkam brought to light a major scam in 2018 in the payment of coal wagon unloading charges at Vishakapattina port to SICL by Tangedco. The NGO alleged that the company had fraudulently claimed Rs 1,267.49 crore between 2011-2016 from Tangedco without showing the actual bills as per agreement and instead had got reimbursement of such a huge amount at ceiling rates.

Even as the DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption) is investigating a case based on a complaint filed by Arappor Iyakkam, the CAG has also raised this issue while claiming that huge financial losses, illegalities and irregularities took place.

“However, SICL has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for payment of Rs 300 crore or above which was withheld by Tangedco after the issues came to light. We learnt that instead of filing a strong affidavit in the NCLT clearly listing out the dispute and the scam that happened, Tangedco recently formed a committee to look into this issue and that the members are being pressurised from certain sections to come to an agreement for releasing the withheld amount of more than Rs 300 crore,” Jayaram said.

He urged the board of directors to immediately verify the allegations ans initiate action to recover not just Rs 1,028 crore of losses between 2011 to 2016 but also calculate the losses incurred between 2001 to 2011 during when extra payments were made violating the contract terms. “Not even a penny should be released to SICL and instead recovery of the lost amount needs to happen immediately,” the letter stated.

When contacted, a senior Tangedco official said the high-level committee has met twice and has not come to a conclusion yet as the issue involves 20 years. “We, however, have arrived at a part,” the official, also a part of the committee, said.