NEW DELHI : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday demanded that the United Progressive Alliance Government conduct a special probe on the oil transactions and surcharges paid by Reliance Company in the Iraqi oil-for-food programme.

Reacting to the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority report tabled in Parliament on Monday, the party Polit Bureau in a statement said the report dealt with two of the four beneficiaries listed in the Volcker Committee Report.

Three contracts

One did not lift any oil assigned to him. The name of the fourth beneficiary — Reliance Company — appears in three oil contracts (M/09/35, M/10/17, M/11/25) amounting to 19 million barrels as non-contractual beneficiary.

As per the Report, the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, was allotted four million barrels, of which, two million barrels were lifted. The Reliance Company lifted 15.78 million barrels.

The CPI(M) had demanded that the Pathak Inquiry Authority investigate these allotments too, but surprisingly, it was not done.

This was not to be confused with the exports by over 125 Indian companies, which supplied goods to Iraq under the oil-for-food programme.

Their transactions were recorded and legal.

"The silence of the BJP on this issue is also illuminating. It was during the BJP-led Government that these allotments to Reliance Company were given.

The CPI(M), therefore, demands that a special investigation be carried out on the oil transactions and surcharges paid by the biggest Indian beneficiary, the Reliance Company. It is incumbent upon the UPA Government to submit a report on the biggest `non- contractual' beneficiary."

The CPI(M) had stated its position on the Volcker Report when it came out in October 2005.

Unjustified sanctions

The U.N. sanctions against Iraq were unjustified and used by the U.S. and its allies as a weapon to destabilise the Iraqi Government. The CPI(M) had held that it was the basic right of the Iraqi Government on how to utilise its oil resources and the revenues accruing from them.

However, since the names of four Indian entities had appeared as non-contractual beneficiaries in the Volcker Report, the CPI(M) had asked for an inquiry to ascertain facts.

Referring to the Pathak report that indicted Mr. Natwar Singh, it said since he had used his party position, it was for the Congress to take action against him.

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