NEW DELHI, Jan 28 (IPS) - Through Enron Corp.'s troubles in India
over its
stalled three billion dollar power project, the power giant's
suave
executives never tired of warning the government that how it
handled the
project would be a litmus test for this country's decade-old
economic
liberalisation.
The former U.S. energy giant's executives were right -- but not
in quite
the way they intended.
Discredited internationally for greasing politicians abroad and
for
cooking the books at home, the company has itself managed to
strike the
biggest blow yet against liberalisation.
According to Jayati Ghosh, who teaches economics at the
Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Enron was more than just another transnational
corporation
(TNC). ''It was in fact the symbol of and even a model for
economic
activity in India and across the world.''
In 1996, Enron collected 200 million dollars in political risk
insurance
for its power project at Dabhol, western Maharashtra state, from
the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which funds U.S.
companies
investing abroad.
But Enron fared very well against the successive changes of
governments
at the state and centre, as well as in dealing with India's
formidable
bureaucracy.
Given the revelations of Enron's political connections at home
in the
United States, in the wake of its collapse this month, critics say
there is
now little doubt that Enron won friends and influenced people in
the
time-honoured way of these parts -- bribery.
Enron's former chief executive Rebecca Mark once glibly
explained away
28 million dollars as having been spent on an ''education fund''
for Indian
politicians, while emphasising that U.S. laws were tight on graft
and that
her company would not dream of it.
Whether or not Enron actually greased palms to penetrate
India's
state-run energy sector and survive successive changes of
government in
industrialised Maharashtra state is now for a one-man commission
headed by
S P Kurudkar to determine and pronounce on. The panel began its
work last
week.
But quite apart from the 28 million dollar education fund that
doubtless
benefited people in a Congress party government run by former
chief
minister Sharad Pawar, there is the curiously changed attitude
toward the
project by his political opponents -- the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and
its close ally, the Hindu fundamentalist Shiv Sena (God's Army).
Pawar and the Congress party were voted out of power in 1995,
mainly as
the result of a relentless campaign by the BJP-SS combine
demanding the
scrapping of a power purchase agreement that the Maharashtra state
government had with Enron in 1993. That was India's first major
step in
privatisation.
But far from making good its election promise of ''throwing
Enron into
the Arabian Sea'', the BJP-SS combine actually renegotiated the
power
purchase agreement after a visit by Rebecca Mark to the home of SS
supremo
Bal Thackeray.
This resulted in far more favourable terms for Enron at the
cost of the
state utility, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB).
When the right-wing nationalist BJP led by Prime Minister Atal
Bihari
Vajpayee first came to power at the national government in 1996,
it lasted
in power for only 13 days after failing to win a confidence motion
in
Parliament.
But in that space of time, Vajpayee signed an iron-clad
counter-guarantee that vastly benefited Enron.
When Vajpayee and the BJP returned to power at the head of a
more
cohesive multi-party coalition, they defended the deal by saying
that
India's state-owned power sector badly needed investment and
technology
that could only come from abroad and that the utilities were
deeply in debt.
Vajpayee said he was only following structural policy changes
laid down
by the previous Congress party government in 1991, limiting
government
control over industrial licensing and opening the country to
foreign
investment while abandoning decades of socialist-style
development.
The government ignored charges by local and international
rights groups
that local residents who protested against environmental
devastation in the
area around Dabhol, caused by the building of the massive plant,
were
brutally suppressed by police.
Even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a statutory
body,
criticised the heavy-handedness with which the BJP-SS government
in
Maharashtra beat and victimised activists who included eminent
lawyers and
activists.
So good was the new deal for Enron that it threatened to
bankrupt not
only the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, but the government
of
Maharashtra itself when the first phase of the project generating
746
megawatts went online in 2000.
Not surprisingly, Maharashtra's Congress party chief minister --
the
BJP-SS combine was voted out in 1999 -- quickly declared the power
purchase
agreement financially unviable. The chief minister, Vilasrao
Deshmukh,
prepared to face all manner of legal action by Enron, including
invocation
of the central government's counter-guarantee.
According to studies carried out by Prayas, a group of young
energy
professionals based in Pune city in Maharashtra, once the second
phase went
on stream in 2002, the Maharashtra electricity board would have
been paying
Enron 52 percent of its revenues to add less than 20 percent to
its own
installed capacity of 10,000 megawatts.
Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum, an independent
group of
scientists and engineers based here, said that the only way out
would have
been for the Maharashtra electricity board to hand over its entire
assets
to Enron.
''In order to pay for power from a 2,192-megawatt power
station,
Maharashtra would have to hand over its generating assets for
10,000
megawatts,'' Purkayasha said.
The economics of it was simple. The Maharashtra electricity
board was
forced, under the terms of the power agreement, to shut down its
own plants
to buy power from Dabhol -- at seven times the price for
distribution to
consumers.
In reaction to the expected high price of power, industries
began
fleeing Maharashtra for other states.
According to Purkayastha, the deal stank mainly because Enron
was to be
paid for its power in U.S. dollars rather than in Indian rupees.
''If Pepsi
and Coca Cola can sell their products in rupees, why should Enron
be paid
in dollars and that when the rupee is sliding steadily against the
dollar?''
Enron, basically an energy trader, demanded that its plant be
run on
imported naphtha or liquefied natural gas (LNG), which it said
could be
imported from its fields in the Middle East when India had vast
amounts of
cheap coal.
Even the World Bank questioned the project's economic
viability, citing
high costs of importing LNG from Qatar as contracted by Enron.
Even shutting down the plant (as what finally happened six
months ago)
is hurting India more than Enron. In spite of the talk of foreign
investment, in return for deregulation Indian financial
institutions were
forced to put up 1.4 billion dollars for the project against the
one
billion dollars Enron actually brought in.
Enron holds 65 percent stake in Dabhol, and its U.S. partners
General
Electric and Bechtel Corp. own 10 percent each. Their combined 85
percent
stake is expected to be put up for competitive bidding as part of
a final
settlement after the project's suspension. The Maharashtra
electricity
board owns the remaining 15 percent.
According to Mohan Guruswamy, a former adviser to Finance
Minister
Yashwant Sinha, the price that is paid for the 85 percent foreign
stake
will reflect the actual cost of building Dabhol, which is likely
to be half
of what Enron claimed it did.
Meanwhile, Dabhol has been sent a notice by the Indian customs
department for moving away valuable and critical components that
had been
imported into the country on concessional duty for the Enron
project.
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