CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta says Moily’s plan will lead to windfall profits for Reliance
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry is on the verge
of perpetrating a “gigantic scam” by advocating a gas price hike that
would benefit the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
to the tune of thousands of crores, said CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta at a
press conference here on Thursday. Mr. Dasgupta has sought the
intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in not only putting an end
to this “national loot” but also in deciding on whether Veerappa Moily,
the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, can continue in office.
Mr.
Dasgupta, who also released a letter to the Prime Minister along with
some documents including parts of a Cabinet note on the gas price hike,
said while the Rangarajan panel had recommended almost doubling the $4.2
mbtu price, Mr. Moily had gone much further and recommended that the
gas price be $8 mbtu in the first year, $10 mbtu in the second year, $12
mbtu in the third year and $14 mbtu in the last two years — close to
what RIL had been demanding. “The Petroleum Secretary and other senior
officials had opposed the Moily formula three times and returned the
file. But Mr. Moily is putting pressure on them to sign the file that
contains his recommendations. If the Moily formula is accepted then the
country would be faced with an additional subsidy burden of Rs. 76,000
crore, all this to benefit an industrial house. It is high time that the
Prime Minister should intervene in the matter and put an end to this
betrayal of the nation and remove Mr. Moily from the Cabinet,’’ he
demanded.
Mr. Dasgupta claimed that if RIL’s price of
$13.8 mbtu price is accepted, the increase in the subsidy burden would
be Rs. 36,000 crore per year and the corresponding profit will be Rs.
32,400 crore for RIL. For the five-year period, this would translate
into an additional subsidy outgo of Rs. 1,80,000 crore and an additional
profit of Rs. 1,62,000 crore for RIL.
“This is a
gigantic scam that is in the process of being enacted through the
generous assistance of the petroleum Ministry. This is national loot of
the country’s natural resources and will cause deepest anger in our
people. This will be the biggest crime if it is allowed to happen in the
tenure of UPA II. I therefore request the Prime Minister to personally
intervene to ensure that this is pre-empted,’’ he remarked.
“What
is even more shocking is that Mr. Moily has been pitching for RIL
despite strong resistance by officials in the Petroleum Ministry
including the Petroleum Secretary to a massive hike in gas prices. He
has been in touch with RIL and has been sharing information with them on
the issue. His computer should be probed and all communications should
be scrutinised. This is superlative corruption and if A. Raja can go for
2G scam, Ashwani Kumar for tampering with the CBI status report, and
Pawan Bansal for the Railgate bribery scam, then there is no reason why
Mr. Moily cannot be sacked for being hand-in-glove with RIL and causing
loss to the national exchequer and the people at large,” he told a
crowded press conference here.
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