Govt rubbishes CAG report, says calculations ‘totally erroneous and misleading’

Aug 18, 2012, 00:13AM



New Delhi: The Government on Friday rubbished the CAG's findings that private firms had received "undue benefits" to the tune of Rs 3.06 lakh crore in coal, aviation and power sectors, arguing that the calculations were "misleading" and faulty and accused the auditor of not following its mandate.

Soon after the CAG's reports on coal allocations, power and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) were tabled in Parliament, respective ministries came out with their counter points on the observations of the government auditor.

Rejecting the CAG report which estimated a gain of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to private firms in allocation of 57 coal blocks between 2005 and 2009, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal insisted that calculations were faulty and notional.

Defending the coal allocations without competitive bidding during that period, Jaiswal said the method adopted was "transparent" and that the auction route was not chosen as there were conflicting opinions from the Law Ministry in 2006.

Civil Aviation Ministry also refuted the loss figures presented by CAG in its report on Delhi airport, saying the calculation was "totally erroneous and misleading".

It claimed its views were not incorporated in the report which estimated a potential earning capacity of Rs 1,63,557 crore to DIAL when it was given Delhi airport land on a concessional lease, of which GMR-led private consortium would get Rs 88,337 crore.

A statement by issued by Ministry said that in the calculation, the CAG "simply adds the nominal value of the projected revenue, without taking the net present value.”

Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy claimed that the CAG reports were not final.

"I am not going to say anything on the merit of this as unfortunately CAG has got a mandate under the Constitution. According to me, the CAG is not following its mandate, which I feel, I wish to bring to notice," he said.

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