CAG admits to existence of ‘draft report’ on coal blocks

India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai said that a "draft report" on the coal mining scam actually existed, reports said. The final report by the CAG would be submitted in a month and would quantify losses, reports added. Providing some relief to the Government on the coal auction issue raked in Parliament on Thursday, India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the details in a newspaper report on matter were "exceedingly misleading". Media reports on Thursday stated that the CAG’s draft report on the ‘Performance Audit of Coal Block and Allocations’ revealed that 155 coal blocks were allotted to private companies without auction between 2004 and 2009 which caused the exchequer a loss of Rs. 10.7tn.

About 100 companies, including private entities and public utilities in industries such as power, steel and cement benefitted from move, reports said. In a letter to the PM, the CAG said that the details in the news report were observations under discussion at a very preliminary stage and do not even constitute a pre-final draft, according to a recent statement issued on the CAG website. Also, the CAG cited a "change in thinking" over how to compute loss to the exchequer, pegged at Rs. 10.7tn in media reports. Reports said citing a CAG official that the figure was expected to qualify as gains to the companies and not loss to the exchequer. This statement would hold truth as the government did not receive any revenue or profit share or even licence fee on blocks allotted to entities. Interestingly, PM Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry for part of the period mentioned. Meanwhile, the government is trying to turn the guns on the BJP government as about 40 coal blocks were already auctioned before the UPA regime between 1993 and 2004.

CAG report on coal mining scam rattles Parliament

Shinde denies knowledge of CAG report on coal scam

Media report on coal scam “misleading”, CAG tells PM

In the wake of media reports today which stated that a coal mining scam was revealed by a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, India’s chief auditor told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the details in a newspaper report on matter were "exceedingly misleading," reports said. In a letter to the PM, the CAG said that the details in the news report were observations under discussion at a very preliminary stage and do not even constitute a pre-final draft, according to a statement issued on the CAG website. Reports stated that the CAG’s draft report revealed that 155 coal blocks were allotted to private companies without auction between 2004 and 2009 which caused the exchequer a loss of Rs. 10.7tn, reports said. About 100 companies, including private entities and public utilities in industries such as power, steel and cement benefitted from move, reports said. Interestingly, PM Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry for part of the period mentioned.

Read full text of CAG's letter to PM

Mukul Roy rolls back fare hike for general, II class

As expected, some of the proposed hike in passenger fares in the Railway Budget announced by former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi was reversed by his successor Mukul Roy on Thursday. Speaking in the parliament today, Roy said that he would roll back passenger fare hike in some categories to protect the common man. Accordingly, the fare hike on second-class sleeper, general, AC-chair car and AC-three tier categories has been cancelled. "The proposal to increase (fares) will impact the common man," Roy told the parliament today. "I intend to give relief by not increasing fares in any of these classes." The proposed fare increase in AC second-class and AC first-class remains unchanged. The Railway Budget for FY13 had announced a fare increase of 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class categories. Mail and express second-class fare was proposed to be raised by 3 paise per km while the same for sleeper class was proposed to be hiked by 5 paise per km. For A/C chair car and A/C 3-tier and First Class the fares were proposed to be increased by 10 paise per km; for A/C 2-tier the fare was to be hiked by 15 paise per km and for A/C I by 30 paise per km.

The budgetary proposal to hike passenger fares was estimated to generate additional revenue of ~ Rs. 65bn. In his budget speech, Trivedi had said he expected to earn Rs. 360.73bn from passenger earnings, ~25% above FY12 passenger earnings of Rs. 288bn. After the rollback in fares, the Railways can expect to generate additional revenue of Rs. 10bn, according to media reports. The Indian Railways incurs a loss of ~Rs 250bn every year due to subsidised passenger fares. At a meeting with representatives of five railway unions at Parliament House on Wednesday, Roy is believed to have assured them that he would raise additional funds to compensate for the shortfall in next year’s plan outlay. Mukul Roy, 58, took charge as Union railway minister on Tuesday. Trivedi had to resign as his proposal on passenger fare hikes didn't go down well with his party - Trinamool Congress.

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