Takeover Enron's Stake at Dabhol

Date: 
Thursday, December 20, 2001

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands the Central government immediately take over the Enron's stake in the Dabhol Power Corporation. This is absolutely necessary to save the $1.2 billion lent by the Indian financial institutions and the additional $700 million guaranteed. This amounts to a whopping nearly 10,000 crores of rupees. All these will go down the drain if no immediate steps have taken.

Negotiations for the sale of Enron has many hurdles, not the least being Enron's bankruptcy in the USA. Any settlement here is bound to be enmeshed in the bankruptcy proceedings in the US courts. Waiting for these negotiations to conclude would most likely see the first stage of the 740 MW and the half-finished second stage turning into junk.

Immediate steps must be taken to ensure that the huge amount of money that the financial institutions have lent is saved. If this is not done, the financial institutions, the holders of people's hard-earned savings, will go up once again in flames soon after the UTI US-64 collapse.

The Central government must take over by paying the existing shareholders, including Enron, GE, Bechtel and MSEB a fair compensation, to be decided after examining the actual equity brought in by these parties. It is necessary to keep in mind that Enron's fancy book keeping has been exposed in the USA. The Central government must ascertain the amount that Enron has actually brought in and not what it claims.