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Questioning the jurisdiction of CAG which had detected a loss of Rs 1.63 lakh crore in the leasing of land to GMR-led private operator, Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) said the concessions available to it to run the Delhi airport were part of the bid documents and were available to every bidder. CAG, in its draft audit report which is yet to be tabled in Parliament, states that DIAL could earn Rs 1.63 lakh crore over a period of 60 years from land that leased out for a mere Rs 100 per year.
“At the outset we would like to state that DIAL, being a public-private partnership, does not come under the purview of CAG audit,” DIAL said in a statement. The company had won the bid to development Delhi airport through a global tender where terms like concessional land and usage of 5 per cent of airport land for commercial purposes were available to all bidders. “The bid process and conditions were reviewed and upheld by the Supreme Court of India in 2006,” it said.
Stating that the figure of Rs 1.63 lakh crore as value of land was “theoretical and grossly misleading”, it said the amount of revenue accruing to DIAL over 58 years does not represent the time value of money. “It (Rs 1.63 lakh crore) is simply the absolute amount of revenues that accrue to DIAL over 58 years (45.99 per cent of the same will be shared with Airport Authority of India) and does not represent the time value of money. The net present value of this land would be only Rs 4,547 crore (about Rs 19 crore per acre),” the statement said
CAG had stated there was no mention of a development fee in the original bid and levying of such a charge violated the Operation Management Development Agreement (OMDA). GMR-led DIAL said the levy of development fee was necessitated on account of inability of AAI to infuse further equity and lenders not willing to provide further debt.
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