Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Anil Ambani group has alleged misconduct by Director General of Hydrocarbons V.K. Sibal in a petition filed in the Supreme Court Tuesday and said he had a role in allowing a huge hike in the capital expenditure of Krishna-Godavari gas fields awarded to Reliance Industries.
The petition contends that in order to make huge profits from the gas produced from the Krishna-Godavari basin, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries had hiked the capital expenditure from $2.4 billion to $8.8 billion.

“This astronomical rise is not genuine and has been wrongly approved by the director general of hydrocarbons and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas,” the petition said, also alleging conflict of interest in the matter.

The petition further alleged that while Sibal had said that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had conducted an audit of the capital expenditure and found the same in order, the actual position was far removed.

“In fact, it has been reported that the Comptroller and Auditor General did not have access to the documents of Reliance Industries relating to the capital expenditure,” said the petition.

The petition also quoted some newspaper reports in a bid to substantiate the points made in the petition and even alleged that Sibal has been acting at the behest of Reliance Industries in exchange of “undue favours”.

When some of the reports appeared in newspapers, Sibal had denied wrongdoing on his part or that he accepted any undue favour as alleged now by the Anil Ambani group, such as a stay for his daughters at premises owned in Mumbai by associates of Reliance Industries.

“My reply is published in the newspapers. This is all of 2005 when my daughter went missing for two days during the Mumbai floods. If it was all a favour, then why did we pay Rs.300,000? I have got a copy of the check,” Sibal had told IANS.

The Anil Ambani group is fighting a bitter legal battle with Reliance Industries for securing 28 million units of gas a day from the Krishna-Godavari basin for 17 years at $2.34 per unit.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear the case Oct 20.

According to the petition, Sibal had also made a statement to a TV channel that the estimated cost per unit of the gas produced Reliance Industries at the Krishna-Godavari was $1.28 per unit.

“This establishes that Reliance Industries will make a huge profit even if the gas is sold at a price US$ 2.34 per unit.”