JSW Steel in the dock for getting illegal ore supply

Bengaluru : State exchequer lost Rs 325 crore, says Lokayukta.Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde has put JSW Steel in the dock for what it terms “getting illegal supply of iron ore" far in excess of what it was permitted. JSW operates a 10 million tonnes per annum steel plant in the Bellary-Hospet region of Karnataka.

In his final report on illegal mining in the state submitted yesterday, Hegde said JSW Steel and its suppliers caused a loss of close to Rs 325 crore to the state exchequer between April 2009 and July 2010.

“Even by excluding the multiple use of some permits, which is common in iron ore transportation, and ignoring the cases of small quantity of overloading.... at least 12,97,707 metric tonnes (MT) iron ore was supplied in excess to JSW Steel, which it calculated at the rate of Rs 2,500 per MT, the market rate at that point of time. The loss suffered by the state comes to a little over Rs 324 crore," says the report.