CHENNAI : The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, later TANGEDCO, has reimbursed Rs 1,267 crore to a contractor for unloading wagon coal at the Visakhapatnam port without obtaining necessary documentary evidences when the contractor has actually paid only Rs 239 crore to the port, members of the Chennai-based NGO Arappor Iyakkam said on Wednesday.
While this discrepancy, found through RTIs and other public documents, was committed in 2011-2016, the NGO has estimated a total loss of Rs 2,500 crore to the State exchequer since 2001. In 2001, the TNEB awarded a contract for a period of five months for movement and handling of coal by rail-cum-sea route through the load ports of Haldia and Visakhapatnam to the South India Corporation Limited (SICL). This contract has been extended for a period of 18 years after a subcontractor of the SICL obtained a stay order in 2005 against issuing fresh tenders for wagon coal unloading.
“TANGEDCO has not vacated the stay order until now,” said Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of Arappor Iyakkam, adding that the contractor had not been blacklisted yet, continuing to receiving payments from the State discom. The discom had been reimbursing the firm without proof of expenditure though the purchase order No 49 states that 100 per cent of railway freight and other charges paid to the port trust would be reimbursed at actuals based on the documentary evidence for the quantity shipped against the bill of loading as proof, Jayaram said.
The information came to light during the communication of TANGEDCO and the reply of the Visakhapatnam port in the audit branch of TANGEDCO, in a case pertaining to a different issue.
TANGEDCO, apart from reimbursing the time wages and levies for wagon unloading of coal, has also reimbursed the contractor for the service tax on Rs 1,267 crore instead of the actual expenditure of Rs 239 crore.