Vedanta lost USD 200 mn in profits in one year of Tuticorin plant shutdown: Agarwal
Vedanta Ltd has lost about USD 200 million in profits ever since its copper smelter plant in Tamil Nadu was shut more than a year back after police fired on protesters and killed 13 people, Group Chairman Anil Agarwal said.Agarwal added that the stoppage of production at the Tuticorin plant of the firm’s unit Sterlite led to the country having to import copper, spending precious foreign exchange.”We have lost about USD 200 million in bottomline (profits),” he told PTI in an interview. “Forget about bottomline. How can you stop production and start importing? After all, what we did at Tuticorin was import substitution.” The Tamil Nadu government had in May last year ordered permanent shutdown of the copper smelter after bloody protests at the plant in Thoothukudi culminated in police opening fire on demonstrators.Vedanta wants the plant to be reopened, pointing to the economic pressures from the closure. As many as 20,000 direct and indirect jobs have been lost due to the shutting of the smelter and about 98,400 more were affected in the consumer or downstream industries.”It is a bread and butter issue for Tuticorin,” he said. “What happened (in police firing) was very unfortunate and our thoughts and sympathies are with the victims. But what is now happening is equally unfortunate.” The Vedanta plant in the Thoothukudi district produced about 40 per cent of India’s copper output.The company had announced a plan to expand capacity, leading to protests on concerns about pollution. Vedanta denies that the factory has been a polluter.He sought to draw a parallel between Tuticorin and Singur in West Bengal which was abandoned by Tata Motors in 2008 after protests over its Nano car factory.
