Anil Agarwal's Vedanta sees foreign hand in Sterlite Copper closure

Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta has said there is a foreign hand in the agitations against its copper production unit, Sterlite Copper, in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, which resulted in its closure.

“After the closure of the plant, almost 38 per cent of the country's copper demand, which Sterlite met, is being catered to by foreign companies,” said counsel for Vedanta in the Madras High Court on Thursday.

“There is a direct economic, financial interest of the foreigners in this,” said 

Senior Counsel C Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for Vedanta in its litigation against the state government’s closure order.

“Foreign manufacturers are benefiting from this and the profit goes to them. The import bill for copper is $2 billion, which Sterlite used to satisfy earlier,” he said.

The closure order of the state government is not because the company is polluting the environment, which it is not, but for extraneous reasons, he said.
 

Neither did the factory exceed the pollution threshold, nor did the government bring up any issues on this during the couple of years prior to the closure, he said. The closure followed protests, police firing, and the deaths of 13 people. Vedanta’s loss because of the closure is around $200 million, he added. 

Sterlite Copper paid the government around Rs 2,200 crore as tax.

He said while the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had refused to renew the “Consent To Operate (CTO)” order, an inspection by the chief environment engineer in Tirunelveli in February 2018, recommended renewing the CTO order for five years and the company had obtained a copy of this report through the Right to Information Act.

He alleged the TNPCB did not maintain the plant though it was important because it had sulphuric acid and other substances. When the factory closed down, it had around 2,500 tonnes of sulphuric acid.

The TNPCB has to be brought to book for not maintaining the factory and action should be taken against the officers responsible for this, he said.

The cost of replacing the machinery in the factory will be around Rs 70 crore, he said.

The matter is scheduled to be heard on Friday. The company approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the state government's May 2018 order. The Principal Bench of the NGT on December 15, 2018, set aside the orders of the state government and directed the TNPCB to handle hazardous substances in the factory.

The Tamil Nadu government and the TNPCB approached the Supreme Court, which set aside the NGT orders and asked the company to approach the Madras High Court.