RIL bid never stated contract needs govt nod: NTPC

The  high powered government panel on the KG Basin gas row met for the final time today. Law Minister Veerappa Moily said amendments to the government's special leave petition (SLP) have been finalised and that it was up to the Oil Ministry to file the revised SLP.

CNBC-TV18 also learns that NTPC will not intervene in RIL-RNRL matter and will file a separate special leave petition at the Supreme Court. The Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said his sole interest was to protect NTPC in D-6 gas row. But the two sides today slugged it out on the need for government approval on gas sales.

Last week, NTPC had written to the Power Secretary and this was a two-page note that seemed to summarise the entire process of it seeking advice from the law officers with regard to protecting its interest in the ongoing battle with RIL for gas supply.

At the end of it all, NTPC said that RIL in its bid had never stated that the contract with NTPC would require government approval. This was a contention, which seems to have come at a very crucial stage. NTPC also went on and asked the power ministry to ensure that its interests are protected. If you tie it in with what else is happening, the likelihood that it will shortly file an SLP, this is a key point in terms of what is the likely arguments were that it is supposed to be raised.

Then subsequent to CNBC-TV18 doing this story, sources close to RIL said that in the several conditions that were part of the draft GSP, RIL had actually made it clear to NTPC that an approval of the price in the contract is required. But clearly this is not the last word on this matter.

This is a letter that RNRL has written today, which is August 25. In that the two key points here are that he continues to assert and question the legitimacy of the capex numbers as has been given out. It goes on to say that, the entire audit should be expedited so that there is clarity on this. It wants the existing findings whatever that may be are available to be made public, along with a revalidation through an international consultant because the undertone of the RNRL letter is that there are questions about who these auditors are and what they have done. So, clearly an additional chapter in the ongoing dispute over the capex numbers for the KG-D6 block.