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Coal scam: Govt files contempt plea against defaulting firms

The Centre has moved the Supreme Court seeking to initiate contempt against various companies for failing to pay the penalty imposed by the Supreme Court in lieu of the coal already mined from the cancelled blocks.

In its fresh petition, the coal ministry wants the SC to take action against the contemnors for willful disobedience of the last year’s judgment and a direction for them to pay the additional levy.

Alleged contemnors include Ujjal Kumar Upadhya, managing director, Bengal Emta Coal Mines, DVC Emta Coal Mines, Karnataka Emta Coal Mines and Panem Coal Mines, Anup Agarwalla, director, BLA Industries, K Kholie, director, Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Development & Trading Corporation, Romit Mutsuddi, managing director, West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation.

Mining leases were executed by joint venture companies formed between the state governments and private miners. Emta was engaged in mining from the coal blocks allotted to the West Bengal, Punjab and Karnataka governments with a majority stake of 74% in the respective joint ventures while the state governments held 26% stake in their respective ventures.

If these companies are asked to pay, the Centre would end up collecting over R5,000 crore as penalty.

After the SC order on cancellation of 204 blocks, it was estimated that West Bengal, Punjab and Karnataka (along with the third party) would pay R1,567 crore, R1,533 crore and R449 crore, respectively, in lieu of the coal already mined. Emta has so far refused to pay over R2,600 crore as its share of penalty. Apart from Emta and West Bengal, the state-run Damodar Valley Corporation is also yet to pay an estimated fine of R220 crore.

Private miners are ineligible to participate in the e-auction, which is restricted to end-use entities. So far, the government has mopped up over R6,000 crore as levy from companies for coal extracted.

As per the SC order, companies had to pay penalty for coal extracted till October by December 31 to be eligible to participate in the auctions. For operational mines, which have been allowed to operate till March 31, the order had decreed that the penalty for excess coal mined till March 31, 2015, will have to be paid by June 30.

The SC had asked the companies to pay an additional levy of R295 per metric tonne of coal extracted from the date of extraction as per the CAG report.

source: http://www.financialexpress.com