PIL on over-invoicing by power firms: HC seeks govt's reply

The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on two PILs seeking an SIT probe into alleged over-invoicing of equipment and fuel imported for power plants by the electricity generating companies of Adani and Essar groups.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sanjeev Sachdeva also issued notice to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seeking its reply to the allegations made in the pleas.
The court directed the DRI to file an affidavit indicating the steps taken by it in the matter and listed the PILs for further hearing on February 7.
During the hearing, the DRI's lawyer told the bench that its probe into some of the power firms had ended and an order was expected soon from its adjudicating authority.

The court was hearing two petitions, one by a private individual and another by two NGOs alleging that the power firms belonging to the two corporate groups were allegedly inflating the value of imports for their power plants to siphon money abroad and avail higher power rate compensation.
The NGOs have claimed that the DRI had earlier unearthed that public and private sector energy companies were siphoning away several thousands crores of rupees abroad.

"Most of these over-invoicing instances have been reported from the power sector, the impact of which is felt by millions of the electricity consumers in the form of higher tariff," the NGOs have claimed in their PIL.

"The modus operandi is identical in all these cases. The coal or power equipment, even though (these are) shipped directly to India, but the invoicing is routed through a different company incorporated abroad which is directly owned and controlled by the promoters of the project in India," the PIL alleged.
The pleas have also claimed that the CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) based on the DRI show-cause notice to Adani in May 2014.
However, the CBI apparently closed the PE without registering an FIR during the tenure of then CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, the PIL alleged.