Southern States
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Kerala
Vigilance probe sought into KRL 'mismanagement'
By Our Staff Reporter
KOCHI, DEC. 5. Trade unions at the Kochi Refineries Limited (KRL) have demanded a Central Vigilance inquiry into the ``mismanagement of affairs of the refinery''.
The demand was put forward by the Cochin Refineries Employees' Association and Cochin Refineries Workers' Association at a press conference here today. Mr. P. N. Surendran Nair and Mr. Eldo K. Mathew, general secretaries of the two unions respectively, alleged that the refinery had lost crores of rupees in setting up projects which were now lying idle.
The trade union leaders, who met the press to explain why they had served a strike notice on the refinery management on the issue of long-term wage settlement, produced a list of projects that were ``mismanaged''.
They accused the refinery management of helping a move to merge it with the Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The union leaders felt that Kerala stood to lose tax revenue if a merger took place.
The trade union leaders accused the refinery management of not making public that some of the high profile projects drawn up by the refinery were off the agenda.
These include the refinery capacity expansion and a 500-mw asphaltines-based power plant.
The trade union leaders said that with the liberalisation of the petroleum sector, high-speed diesel would be surplus in the market and that KRL's capacity expansion would not be viable. As a result, the project was called off.
The setting up of the power plant too has been taken off the agenda because, the trade union leaders said, the Kerala State Electricity Board had expressed its inability to lift power from the proposed new facility.
However, Mr. K. L. Kumar, chairman of the refinery, said that capacity expansion plans had not been called off as alleged by the trade unions. ``The project is being reworked as the market realities will change after the administered prices mechanism goes in April next year,'' he said.
The project had to be reworked on two counts - one on quality grounds and the second on the basis of the market realities, he said. It was planned to raise the refining capacity from 7.5 million tonnes to 13.5 million tonnes.
The list of the ``mismanaged'' projects provided by the unions include the desulphurisation plant, project for raising LPG production, effluent water treatment plant, import of oil pipes from Germany, setting up of the new corporate office, etc.
The KRL trade unions felt that the refinery had spent more money than other refineries in setting up the desulphurisation plant. According to them, most of the other refineries have set up desulphurisation plants at costs ranging between Rs. 250 to 300 crores whereas the KRL plant costs Rs. 850 crores.
However, Mr. Kumar denied these allegations. He said that the desulphurisation plant had cost Rs. 850 crores because
it had a capacity to treat 2 million litres of diesel whereas similar plants at other refineries had capacities ranging from .25 million tonnes to .75 million tonnes only.
The trade unions felt that the Rs. 18-crore, newly-opened corporate office of the company near Kundannoor on the National Highway, was not necessary. The union leaders said that the new office was being used by the chairman for ``rest'' and that in building tax alone, the KRL had to pay Rs. 1,60,000 per year to the Maradu panchayat. The monthly expenditure on running the office cost about Rs. 6 lakhs, they added.
However, the KRL chairman said that the Kundannoor office was necessary because there was a need to delink the day-to-day functioning of the refinery from strategic planning and activities oriented to the future of the refinery.
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