With the US court filing accusing Gautam Adani, his nephew and six others of allegedly bribing a high-ranking Andhra Pradesh government official, the YSR Congress party which was in power at the time in the state has called the allegations incorrect.
According to the indictment in the case, Adani allegedly paid Rs 1,750 crore in exchange for the official facilitating that the state’s distribution companies agree to purchase seven gigawatts of solar power from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under the manufacturing linked project.
Responding to the claims, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP, via a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), said: “There is no direct agreement between AP DISCOMs and any other entities including those belonging to the Adani group. Therefore, the allegations made on the State Government, in the light of the indictment are incorrect.”
Explaining how the process of setting up the agreements went about, the party stated: “Andhra Pradesh distribution utilities supply close to 12,500 MU of free power per annum to agriculture sector. On this front, the Government compensates the distribution utilities to the extent of the cost of supply pertaining to that power. Owing to the policies of the previous Governments in the State of Andhra Pradesh, PPAs at exorbitant tariffs were executed. This was making the subsidy cost very burdensome on AP Government. With a view to mitigate this problem, the State Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2020 proposed to install 10,000 MW of solar capacity in solar parks to be developed in the state of AP.”
It added, “In this regard, a tender was floated by APGECL in Nov 2020 for development of solar power capacity aggregating to 6,400 MW power, wherein over 24 bids were received with the tariffs in the range of Rs. 2.49 to Rs. 2.58 per kWh. However, the tender encountered several obstacles on legal and regulatory front and therefore, the exercise could not fructify.”
The party further explained that the then state government had “received an offer from SECI, a Government of India enterprise to supply 7,000 MW of power at the lowest discovered tariff of Rs. 2.49 per kWh including waiver of ISTS charges”.
“In the light of this, the Government of Andhra Pradesh entered into an arrangement to procure power from SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India)… It is necessary to mention that SECI is a Government of India enterprise. There is no direct agreement between AP DISCOMs and any other entities including those belonging to the Adani group. Therefore, the allegations made on the State Government, in the light of the indictment are incorrect,” the statement read.
What are the allegations?
According to the US court filings, where the high-ranking Andhra government official has been referred to as “Foreign Official #1”, Gautam Adani personally met the person in Andhra Pradesh to advance the execution of a PSA between SECI and the state electricity distribution companies, including on or about August 7, 2021, on or about September 12, 2021 and on or about November 20, 2021”.
“In furtherance of the bribery scheme, the co-conspirators, through Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani, Vneet S Jaain and others, had offered and promised to Indian government officials approximately Rs 2,029 crore (approximately $265 million) in bribes in exchange for Indian government officials causing the state electricity distribution companies to execute power sale agreements (PSAs) under the Manufacturing Linked Project, which would benefit the Indian energy company’s (Adani Green Energy) subsidiaries and the US issuer,” the filing read.
Andhra Pradesh’s electricity distribution companies entered into a PSA with SECI on or about December 1, 2021, pursuant to which the state agreed to purchase approximately seven gigawatts of solar power- by far the largest amount of any Indian state or region, the court filings said.
