Media buried report about Adani inflating imported coal prices; accuses govt of shielding the industrialist: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday flagged a report in the Financial Times that relied on customs data to establish that the Adani Group imported coal at prices above the market rate and these inflated fuel costs led millions of Indian consumers and businesses to overpay for electricity.

“Adaniji buys coal in Indonesia and by the time it reaches India, its rate doubles. By inflating coal price, over-invoicing, Adaniji has taken ₹12,000 crore out of the pocket of the common man in India,” said Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi pointed out that even though the Financial Times had done this expose, none of the Indian newspapers or mainstream media followed it. “The interesting question to me is - The Financial Times has a huge story. This story would bring down any government. This is direct theft by a man, who has been protected again, and again, and again by the Prime Minister of India. And the surprising thing is, not a single Indian newspaper is interested in picking up the story, not a single media channel is interested in picking up the story,” said Gandhi.

The FT report had said: “The data supports longstanding allegations that Adani, the country’s largest private coal importer, has been inflating fuel costs and led millions of Indian consumers and businesses to overpay for electricity. The records show that over the past two years, Adani used offshore intermediaries in Taiwan, Dubai and Singapore to import $5billion-worth of coal at prices that were at times more than double the market price. One of these companies is owned by a Taiwanese businessman who was recently named by the FT as a substantial hidden shareholder in Adani companies. The FT also examined 30 shipments of coal from Indonesia to India by an Adani company over 32 months between 2019 and 2021. In all cases, prices in import records were far higher than those in corresponding export declarations. During the journeys, the value of the combined shipments unaccountably increased by over $70mn.”

The Adani Group was quoted in the report as denying all wrongdoing. It said the FT story was based on an “old, baseless allegation” and is a “clever recycling and selective misrepresentation of publicly available facts and information”.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, replying to a question about whether some Congress-run State governments, which are subsidising power, could initiate a probe into the Adani coal matter, said: “That’s an interesting idea. We will look into it.”

On why he is asking the Prime Minister to respond to questions on Adani when his own alliance partner, Sharad Pawar, has been keeping close touch with Adani, Gandhi said, “Sharad Pawar is not the Prime Minister of India. Sharad Pawar is not protecting Mr. Adani, Mr. Modi is and that is why, I ask Mr. Modi this question and not Mr. Sharad Pawar. If Mr. Sharad Pawar was sitting as the Prime Minister of India, and if he was protecting Mr. Adani, then I would be asking Mr. Sharad Pawar that question.”

BJP’s response

Soon after Gandhi addressed a press conference on this issue, the BJP mounted a counter charge. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed the matter involving Adani is in the Supreme Court and Gandhi’s comments on the issue show he has no faith either in the Constitution or in the apex court.

Alleging that the Gandhis are the “most corrupt” family in the world, Bhatia said Rahul Gandhi is himself on bail in the National Herald case. The Congress leader never speaks on the corruption charge against him and the alleged scams of his brother-in-law Robert Vadra, the BJP leader said.