Business
Jindal 'puzzled' as its bids for coal blocks rejected
New Delhi, March 21
Jindal Power expressed
surprise on Saturday as the government decided against accepting its
bids, along with that of Balco, for four coal blocks, while deciding to
go ahead with five others put to scrutiny after two rounds of e-auctions
for 33 mines.
The bids for five other blocks that were re-examined got a go ahead.
"Government
takes decision on bids for nine coal blocks after examination. Bids for
five blocks accepted," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted. Bids for
Gare Palma 4/1, 4/2, 4/3 and Tara coal blocks not accepted," he said,
referring to the four blocks.
Jindal Power had made the highest
bid for Tara coal block that was on the table during the March auction,
while Balco did so for Gare Palma 4/1 during February. Jindal Power was
also the highest bidder for Gare Palma 4/2 and 4/3 blocks. All these
blocks are in Chhattisgarh.
Five of the nine blocks that were
examined belong to the Schedule III category that are near operational,
while the four others are listed under Schedule II that were already
operational, according to a coal ministry official.
Reacting to
the decision, Jindal Power said it failed to understand the reason for
rejection that "the highest bidder doesn't reflect fair value" and
further that it had followed a consistent and prudent bidding strategy
throughout the auction process as a serious long term player.
"We
are puzzled with the decision and would make our best efforts to engage
in a dialogue with the coal ministry and government authorities to
present the facts," the company said in a statement.
The coal
ministry official said they considered whether these bids were too low
when compared with the winning bids for other similar blocks via an
analytical tool called "outlier" that looked for unusual patterns that
are far removed from the mass of data.
"Not making any allegation
of cartelisation as of now," Secretary Swarup had tweeted following the
decision on examination, and told reporters later: "We are looking at
whether the price that was quoted is good enough for the government or
not, and whether we could get a better price".
Listing the
options before the government, should the bids be rejected, he said the
government could re-auction the mines, allot them to the states or even
hand them over to the state-run Coal India.