CPI asks PM to come clean on tax sops to RIL

Intensifying its attack against the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Group, the Communist Party of India (CPI) today questioned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL’s) move to transfer Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) to Mukesh Ambani.

The CPI believes this is a ploy to deprive other shareholders of the company to earn a profit.

The party, which has just four MPs in the current Lok Sabha, has also demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clarify on supply of gas and its price from RIL-operated fields and the “abnormal tax concessions” given to the company in the 2009-10 General Budget.

According to the CPI, RGTIL, under Mukesh Ambani, spent Rs 20,000 crore in laying a 1,400-km gas pipeline from Kakinada to Baruch but the company has been “transferred to Mukesh Ambani as a personal company for a nominal amount, depriving it of profit to RIL share-holders”.

“People have the right to know how much gas is produced from February till now and whether Reliance has slowed down its exploration to wait for immediate usage,” the CPI said.

RIL had, however, began gas production in April and sales began only by the end of the month, according to an agency report.

The CPI in a statement also argued the government’s petition in the Supreme Court, saying that RIL could not sell gas below $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) price. “This nullifies any scope for NTPC in obtaining gas at previously agreed rate of $2.34 per mmBtu. The (petroleum) ministry is thus fighting against a Navaratna PSU,” it said.