Is Andhra Pradesh govt set to scrap deal with SECI over Adani gate?

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has in principle decided to scrap the power purchase agreements (PPAs) its discoms had signed with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) during the previous YSRCP regime, and has started working out modalities in that direction, sources having direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to DH.

These PPAs are at the centre of alleged bribery charges against billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani and others, brought by the US Justice Department and the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Sources close to Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu told DH that the government had already identified serious lapses in the way PPAs were approved in a “tearing hurry” by the Cabinet of former chief minsiter Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Naidu had discussed the issue at a party strategy meeting recently and conveyed to a few leaders that the process to cancel the agreements may be taken up after the Winter Session of Parliament is over so that it won’t be used by Opposition parties against TDP’s key ally, BJP.

As the power supply had not yet begun, the government should not worry about cancelling the agreements.

The Naidu government also believes that these PPAs will significantly burden the state’s exchequer for the next 25 years.

Since Naidu announced on the floor of the state Assembly that the government would study the US court indictment and take appropriate action, officials have been diligently examining the files related to the SECI deal.

One of the two sources who confirmed the developments said that TDP had raised the anomalies in the SECI deal when in opposition, and it would be inappropriate not to take proactive action when the issue had now escalated significantly.

Politically, too, TDP wants to use the issue to corner Jagan. The thinking among the top leadership is that it wants to make it more a Jagan issue than an Adani one.

“It was the current Finance Minister, Payyavula Keshav, when he was the state Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman while in opposition, who had first flagged the issue, filed a PIL, and written to SECI and CERC multiple times. Naturally, it is our responsibility now that we are in power to revisit these PPAs,” said the highly-placed source.

“Now that the issue has escalated significantly, we are compelled to take action. The government had decided to cancel these PPAs. It was in just seven to eight hours

that a note related to PPAs was prepared, went to the

Cabinet from the relevant department and was approved,” the person said.

In one of the letters written by Keshav to SECI on November 12, 2021, seen by DH, he had directly accused

SECI of favouring the successful bidders of the solar manufacturing scheme—Adani Green Energy Ltd and Azure power.

“Your actions clearly represent your intentions of accommodating the personal interests of the successful bidders. You, being an agency of the Centre, ought to have acted in the best interests of the public and the country. However, you have forgotten your duties and paved a malafide path to the successful bidders. Provide me with reasons for such interests of yours,” read a portion of the 14-page letter to SECI by Keshav.