Today Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President and Member of Parliament Shaktisinh Gohil addressed Press Conference on big scam of Urja vibhag at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan in Ahmedabad.
The Congress party has consistently said that the Narendra Modi government represents the worst kind of cronyism in the country. Its a government of the cronies, for the cronies and by the cronies. No government in the past ever facilitated corporate cronyism the way this the most corrupt government has been doing since 2014. Ever since the Hindenburg Research published a comprehensive report on the Prime Minister’s most favoured Adani Group and its stock market manipulation, round tripping and accounting fraud, the Congress party has unequivocally been demanding probes in the corporate governance structure, money laundering and insider trading and accounting malpractices in the group. There have been reports and documents about how closely this corrupt government and its most favoured corporate group are linked.
Today, we are presenting some documents to show the classic case of corruption, loot of public resources and money laundering by the Modi’s government in Gujarat and Adani Power. Under BJP, Gujarat government is the epitome of cronyism with the blessings of the Prime Minister. As a former minister of Gujarat, it pains me to say that the Prime Minister Modi and BJP have reduced the Government of Gujarat (GoG) to the Government of Gautam Adani (GoG). Here is a letter written by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd dated May 15, 2023 to Adani Power Mundra seeking recovery of Rs 3802 crores, excess payment made by the GUVNL towards energy charges for the two Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) the GUNVL and Adani Power had signed. The excess payment of whopping Rs 3900 crore has been made by the GUVNL from 15-10-2018 to 31-03-2023, for five years. However, that the GUVNL was making excess payments to the Adani Power for five long years from October 2018 to March 2023 and then suddenly realised in May 2023 that it had made excess payments, after the Hindenburg exposed the fraud, is less shocking.
The more shocking part is the paragraph no 3 in the letter. Look at the paragraph, which says and I would say, the GUVNL (which is in Gujarat is often referred to as Gautam Adani Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd), is helplessly stating that the rate at which coal is being purchased by Adani Power Mundra is significantly higher than the actual market value at which the coal is being traded in Indonesia. Even the more shocking part comes now: The GUVNL has been repeatedly seeking documents/ invoices/reports with regard to the reference being taken by Adani Power in procurement of coal through spot market inquiry which reflects coal procurement in transparent and competitive manner. However, the Adani Power has been continuously procuring coal at premium price from a few selected spot suppliers which is not reflecting the actual market value of Indonesian coal from time to time and not submitting the supporting documents. This means, the GUVNL has made payment of Rs 13802 crore during 2018 to 2023 despite the fact that the Adani power did not submit any invoice or report or supporting documents of coal procurement. Releasing of payment without due diligence of invoices and supporting documents in any government cannot be done by any officers. We believe that the officers must have been asked or directed or even pressurised to process and release the payments to Adani Power irrespective of any document or invoice or supporting reports by the top in the Gujarat government that is the energy department and the Chief Minister’s Office. I want to ask where are ED or the CBI or the Serious Fraud Investigation Organisation (SFIO) ? Why they are not launching the investigation in the massive scam the Adani group is committing in procurement of coal and charges public money from the government based on inflated cost of procurement. This is a textbook case of corruption, money laundering, loot of public money and above all, the classic case of cronyism that the Prime Minister and his government represent.
