Jindal in HC for refund of Rs 1185cr additional levy

Delhi High Court today sought the government's response on Jindal Power Ltd's plea for refund of over Rs 1185 crore paid by it as additional levy for taking part in the coal auction and challenging the provisions of the Coal Mines Act which makes such levy mandatory.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice V Kameswar Rao issued notice to the ministries of Coal and Law and Justice seeking their replies by February 13 next year on Jindal's plea.
In its petition, the company also assailed a 2012-13 report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to the extent it calculated that there was a net gain of Rs 295 per metric tonne (PMT) of coal to allottees who operated the blocks.

The CAG report had also estimated a financial gain of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to prior private allottees.
Jindal has said it was allocated Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 blocks at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh to meet its requirement for running a 1000 mega watt power plant there.
The Supreme Court on September 24, 2014 had cancelled allocation of 214 coal blocks, including those of Jindal.

In its plea, the company has contended that it had paid under protest a total of Rs 1185,20,33,280 as additional levy for participating in the auction process.
It had sought refund of the entire amount claiming that the government's letters demanding payment of the amount was illegal and without any authorisation.

The company contended that the government cannot impose any such levy without first adjudicating the issue and sought that the provisions in the Act which provided for such levy be declared ultra vires of the Constitution.
It opposed the figure of Rs 295 PMT calculated as net gain by CAG, alleging that the report of the auditing body "fails to show any intelligible differentia of coal alloted or nature of mines".
The petition further claims that the CAG audit was carried out without any direction from the President, Governor or Administrator, as required under the law and sought that the report be declared as unlawful and ultra vires.