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Cairn-Vedanta deal to come before CCEA on Wednesday
After a prolonged delay, the Union Cabinet will take up on Wednesday (April 6) for approval the $9.6 billion acquisition of Cairn India Limited (CIL) by the London-listed Anil Aggarwal owned mining group Vedanta Resources.
After securing the views of the Finance Ministry and the Law and Justice Ministry the matter has been listed for the consideration of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. The matter will be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. “The Government has tried to work out a solution to the satisfaction of all. We are not in favour of sending any kind of negative message to the foreign investors but at the same time the interests of the public sector units cannot also be overlooked. The Cabinet will look at two options and approve one of them,’’ a senior Petroleum and Natural Ministry official remarked.
It is learnt that the Petroleum Ministry has watered down preconditions for giving approval to Cairn-Vedanta deal that was announced in August 2010. The Ministry is understood to have withdrawn its earlier stand that Rs. 21,802 crore in royalty and cess paid by ONGC on behalf of Cairn India on the Rajasthan oilfields should be equitably shared. The Ministry under its previous Minister, Murli Deora had conditioned the government nod to CIL agreeing to equitable sharing of royalty and paying its share of cess.
However, in a fresh move under the present incumbent and Petroleum Minister, Jaipal Reddy, a new Cabinet note was circulated. It has listed an alternative that it will continue to legally pursue equitable sharing of royalty and cess, but will not make it a precondition for approval of the deal. The Ministry is of the view that royalty should be treated as cost recoverable item. Whether it is to be pre-conditioned or not, will be decided by the Cabinet.
There are two options listed in the Cabinet note. In the first, five preconditions are listed, instead of the 11 it had originally proposed to Cairn-Vedanta deal in January. The five preconditions include royalty being made cost-recoverable, Cairn India withdrawing arbitration disputing its liability to pay cess, Cairn India obtaining partner ONGC's no-objection and Vedanta providing performance and financial guarantees.
As an alternative to the precondition of royalty and cess, the Ministry has suggested that government shall pursue all legal recourse for establishing its rights under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in the case of cess. On royalty, it shall take appropriate decision to enforce the provisions of PSC to make royalty cost-recoverable.
The Cabinet is likely to approve the second option which is considered easier and least controversial. Sources in the Ministry said the Cabinet could also ask CIL to make an unconditional application seeking government consent for the transaction.
ONGC owns a 30 per cent stake in the Rajasthan block, but pays royalty on the entire quantum of crude oil produced from the fields. Over the life of the field, the royalty burden works out to Rs. 18,000 crore, of which ONGC also has to bear Cairn's share of about Rs. 12,600 crore. CIL has also disputed any liability to pay Rs. 2,500 per tonne cess on its 70 per cent share of production from the ajasthan blocks, which totals Rs. 9,202 crore for ONGC over the life of the field.
Cairn-Vedanta have a timeline of April 15 to close the transaction.