India police to investigate NTPC, MMTC, others over coal imports

MMTC

23/01/2018 11:20

NEW DELHI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - India's federal investigator 
will probe top state-run utility NTPC  NTPC.NS  and state-owned 
company MMTC  MMTC.NS , over whether they were involved in a 
scheme to import inferior quality coal from Indonesia and pass 
it off as superior grade. 
    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a 
case against unnamed officials of NTPC and MMTC, as well as the 
owner of a private firm Coastal Energy Pvt. Ltd for entering 
"into a criminal conspiracy amongst themselves with a view to 
cheat," according to a report on the CBI's website. 
    The CBI report said Coastal Energy, based in the southern 
city of Chennai, imported 147 consignments of coal from 
Indonesia between 2011 and 2015 and entered into agreements with 
NTPC, MMTC and some of their joint ventures to pass off the 
inferior quality of coal as superior grade through a "fraudulent 
modus operandi." 
    The scheme resulted in 4.87 billion rupees ($76.4 million) 
in "excess" charges being paid for the imported coal, the CBI 
added. 
    NTPC declined to comment, while MMTC and Coastal Energy did 
not immediately respond to request for comment. 
    India generates four-fifths of its power generation through 
coal-fired plants and imports the commodity from countries such 
as Australia, Indonesia and South Africa. Coal imports, however, 
have fallen for the past two fiscal years due to increasing 
local supply. 
 ($1 = 63.7700 Indian rupees) 
 
 (Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan, editing by Louise Heavens) 
 ((Sudarshan.Varadhan@thomsonreuters.com ; +911149548059; 
Reuters Messaging: 
sudarshan.varadhan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: NTPC COAL/PROBE