Congress questions govt over IOC’s ‘unfavourable’ contract to hire Adani-owned port for LPG imports

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday alleged that the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had been importing LPG via the government-run Visakhapatnam Port but was now being made to use the Adani-owned Gangavaram Port through an “unfavourable” contract.

The allegation came a day after IOC took to Twitter to clarify its initial pact for hiring the Adani Group port for LPG imports in addition to existing pacts with nearby ports, saying there is no take-or-pay agreement.

The IOC’s statement, which came in response to TMC leader Mahua Moitra raising a stink of a scam in hiring of the port facility without a tender, contradicted Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited’s earning call presentation that said

“MoU signed with IOCL for a take-or-pay contract at Gangavaram Port for building LPG handling facilities.”

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, as part of the party’s ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun’ (How are we related to Adani) series, under which it poses three questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter every day, said he had questioned the PM’s role in facilitating an Adani

Group “monopoly” in the ports sector earlier and Friday’s questions were a follow up and related to the IOC agreement to use the LPG facilities in the Gangavaram Port.

“It is now widely known that you (PM) have used all the means at your disposal to help Adani (Group) expand its ports business, whether by giving port concessions in the absence of bidding or by inflicting income tax raids on business groups to encourage them to sell their valuable

assets to Adani,” Ramesh alleged in his statement.

He asked the prime minister why he was

“intentionally undermining” the public sector that his government was meant to be stewarding on behalf of the

citizens of India.