Power producers under scanner for inflating coal import bills

Mumbai

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is probing certain companies — both private sector and PSUs — which import coal from Indonesia for their power plants and allegedly show inflated import value on the books to justify increase in the power tariff.

“We are probing the case… We are now in the process of collecting all the documents from various places,” said a senior DRI official.

Though the officials were tight-lipped when asked about the value of the suspected misappropriation and manipulation of books, they said it could be a multi-crore fraud, and they were looking into the cases between 2011 and 2014.

“We have raided certain companies, including some reputed power producers, in places like Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, etc,” said an official.

The official said some public sector companies were also under the scanner.

According to DRI, these companies get coal shipped directly from Indonesia, however, they route the invoices through an intermediary in Hong Kong, Singapore or Dubai, to show that the consignment has passed through these destinations.

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