Cabinet to mull Cairn-Vedanta deal in next meet: Oil Min

The oil ministry is hoping that the cabinet will consider and discuss the Cairn-Vedanta deal in the next meeting. The cabinet note dilutes pre-conditions on royalty and CESS, however, the government can always pursue legal recourse for CESS and a decision can be taken later to enforce PSC provisions on royalty, reports CNBC-TV18's Nayantara Rai quoting the oil ministry sources.
"Deal or no deal, ONGC will have to pay royalty right now,” said the oil ministry.
"Better if deal goes through, we can try to fix royalty issue then."
Except from the finance ministry, comments from all the key ministries have come in. In the view of the law ministries, pre-conditions need consent of all the parties.
A senior official in the oil ministry said the corporate affairs ministry has in a sense given the deal a clean chit as it does not infringe upon the Companies Act. This is interesting as both Cairn and Vedanta had been preparing a case of minority shareholders interests being compromised by the oil ministry's pre-conditions on cess and royalty.
The law ministry had opined that all parties consent would be required for all the pre conditions, that had resulted in the oil ministry watering them down.
"Deal or no deal, ONGC will have to pay royalty right now,” said the oil ministry.
"Better if deal goes through, we can try to fix royalty issue then."
Except from the finance ministry, comments from all the key ministries have come in. In the view of the law ministries, pre-conditions need consent of all the parties.
A senior official in the oil ministry said the corporate affairs ministry has in a sense given the deal a clean chit as it does not infringe upon the Companies Act. This is interesting as both Cairn and Vedanta had been preparing a case of minority shareholders interests being compromised by the oil ministry's pre-conditions on cess and royalty.
The law ministry had opined that all parties consent would be required for all the pre conditions, that had resulted in the oil ministry watering them down.