War of words hots up over Barmer refinery
Govt’s claim of saving Rs 40Kcr on refinery misleading: Gehlot
Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said the Vasundhara Raje-government’s claims about saving Rs 40,000-cr through revised MoU on the Barmer oil refinery was a “half-truth“ that was being spread to mislead people.
Gehlot pointed out that the revision in annual viability gap funding in the form of interestfree loan for 15 years, which the Raje-government claims to have achieved through series of negotiations with HPCL in past four years, was already provisioned in the MoU signed by his government in 2013.
At the signing of the revised MoU here on Tuesday , CM Raje highlighted that the state would now have to pay an annual Rs 1123-cr, instead of Rs 3736-cr, for 15 years, thereby saving around Rs 40,000-cr in establishing the refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Barmer district.
“Provision to reduce the interest-free loan amount, which was linked to maintaining minimum commercial production of at least 9-MMTPA of finished products, was already there in the old MoU,“ Gehlot said. The HPCL and the Rajasthan government’s join-venture company (HRRL) was to produce minimum 9-MMTPA finished oil through 4.5-MMTPA production in Rajasthan and another 4.5-MMTPA through import. “As per the earlier MoU, in case at any time the productionavailability of indigenous crude oil in Rajasthan was more than 4.5-MMTPA, the amount of interest free loan by the state government was to be reduced proportionately ,“ Gehlot said.
“Since the indigenous production capacity has now reached 9.1-MMTPA, which means there is no need to import 4.5MMTPA, the HPCL has agreed to the reduction in interest-free loan from Rs 3736-cr to Rs 1123cr. What is the Raje-government’s achievement in it? By her logic, the loan amount may have gone even below Rs 1123-cr if the government had waited a little more, as indigenous production would have further increased,“ the former CM argued.
“The CM, while criticizing my government’s MoU, had said that when the oil is ours, the land is ours and the water is ours, why then the state’s stake in the joint-venture company was just 26%. Now my question is, in the fresh MoU, why has she not increased the state’s stake?“ Gehlot said. “State’s stake has not been increased but the project’s cost has increased by almost Rs 6000-cr, from Rs 37,229-cr to Rs 43,119-cr, due to the present government’s delay .Project cost has increased even though international oil price has come down from $115 per barrel to $45 per barrel. The Gujarat government, meanwhile, is earning Rs 1500-cr annually in VAT due to delay in our refinery ,“ he said. Attacking Raje, Gehlot asked, “She finally says the refinery will bring a transformation in the state. So, why did she keep the project pending for four years, especially when she has not been able to better its terms and conditions even one bit?“ The former CM demanded that details of the old and fresh MoUs be made public and dared petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan to order an investigation if the state’s interests were compromised in the earlier MoU.