‘Debate on coal stalled’
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Union law and justice minister Salman Khurshid announced that the Centre would shortly set up a Coal Regulatory Authority for conducting biddings for the coal blocks. Speaking to newsmen at Gandhi Bhavan here on Monday, Mr Khurshid, whose agenda was to refute the allegations of the national Opposition party, BJP, on the ‘Coalgate scam’, said that the Comptroller and Auditor General, in his report, had never stated that there was already a loss to the exchequer on account of allotment of coal blocks.
The CAG had only pointed out that in case coal blo-cks were auctioned, there would have been more revenue for the Centre, it did not quantify the revenue that would accrue through auctioning, he said. Mr Khurshid squarely blamed the BJP for the washout of the Parliament Session, “They deliberately did it (stalling the House) to prevent a debate on the CAG report as promised by the Prime Minister.”
He felt that BJP leaders were competing with each other in spreading false propaganda and lies again-st the Congress and against the Union government. Mr Khurshid reiterated that due to allotment of coal blocks to private institutions, the government did not incur any loss, as alleged by the Opposition.
“The government will get its revenue in the form of royalty (14 per cent) and through taxes (33 per cent),” he said. Mr Khurshid added that the allotment of coal blocks had even been recommended by a majority of the Chief Ministers, including those of BJP-ruled states in 2006. “Privatisation is nothing new,” Mr Khurshid said. “Whenever demand grows in sectors, like power, cement and steel, successive governments have issued licenses to private institutions. Coal block allotment is similar to this,” he pointed out. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that it had become a fashion for the BJP to demand a Parliament Session and stall it when it was assembled.
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