A Government-appointed panel has found "serious" financial irregularities in 25 operational coal blocks which had been deallocated by the Supreme Court and have been put up for auction. The Committee, headed by former CVC Pratyush Sinha, said there were "serious anomalies" with regard to claiming depreciation by companies which earlier owned these coal blocks.
"In almost all the cases, certification of statutory auditors was either not available or was not satisfactory," the report of the Committee said. It further said that different companies owning the coal blocks had charged depreciation at different rates on the same class of assets. "In one case, the same company had charged depreciation at different rates on the same class of assets for two of these coal blocks." Following the deallocation of coal blocks by Supreme Court in September last year, the Coal Ministry had formed a Committee under the chairmanship of Sinha for valuation and assessment of running coal mine.