Cong targets Modi over ONGC plan to buy GSPC stake

The Congress has seized reports of ONGC’s plans to buy stake in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation’s (GSPC) “difficult” gas field to relaunch its attack on the Modi government.

Likening the ONGC move to a “surgical strike”, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “forcing” the state-run ONGC to acquire GSPC’s asset to “cover up his past sins”.

“Most experts value GSPC’s KG block at no more than Rs 3,000 crore. GSPC’s loan borrowings alone are Rs 20,000 crore,” Ramesh told reporters here. The Congress leader accused Modi of “proudly claiming” that GSPC had found 20 trillion cubic feet of gas, while in reality, the gas deposits were no more than one tcf.

Terming the GSPC’s borrowings “scam”, Ramesh said the Rs 20,000-crore loan would be hidden in the balance sheet of ONGC, a company with a net worth of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. He said ONGC had six lakh small shareholders, besides 200 foreign and Indian Financial institutional investors.

“ONGC’s money belongs to these shareholders and not to the Modi government,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh demanded to know who had decided that GSPC will be purchased by ONGC. “Was it the ONGC board? On what basis was this decision taken? What does ONGC stand to gain from this purchase? What is the response to and action on the CAG report on GSPC,” he asked.

“If we followed the correct norms set by previous RBI Governor (Raghuram Rajan), the GSPC would have been declared a non-performing asset,” said Ramesh.