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| Edited By: Swati Khandelwal |Source: Zee Business |Updated: Jan 07, 2019, 05:15 AM IST
Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta Group, speaks about his expectations from the government this year, plans related to investment and expansion and area about which he is passionate and wants to work for during an interview with Swati Khandelwal of Zee Business.
We should provide a relief to the farmers for the next 10 years, where they are provided seeds and fertilisers at marginal rates, free electricity and compensation for their crops along with farm loan waivers. Secondly, we should thank mother earth, as she is asking us to exploit minerals like oil, gold, copper, coal and iron among others, and reduce the imports and use the funds in employing the people and waving off the farm loans. Half of India's total income is invested in imports, but using the amount in the country will help in employing people and providing a subsidy to farmers. In fact, using 10-20% of the amount will help us in providing almost everything that a farmer wants today.
I am the only person from the natural resources segment with a demand that India should stop importing from another country. Interestingly, the earth is saying that you can exploit me in a sustainable manner. You will not believe that our company, which is a drop in the ocean, has paid around Rs 1.60 lakh crore as tax in India. Thus think what will happen if another 10-20 more companies, which are ready to come, come and start operations.
We must not wait and watch, and people should start working from today itself as nothing is going to change with the government change, as whosoever comes to power will remain progressive in nature. If you want to increase your business and feel that you have the capability, then I would request you to carry on with your process. India is a country of entrepreneurs, so fuel the entrepreneurship within you and extend your business.
We will be spending $8 billion in the next three years in India. I will like to talk about the company, Vedanta, which is working with a single agenda of taking the country ahead.
The expenses will be met from the internal accruals as we earn a profit of around $7-8 billion/year, which means, we will have around $20-21 billion after three years. Apart from this, banks have never denied funds to us and we can approach it in case of emergencies.
We have acquired 22% stake in Anglo American, which is the world's largest producer of diamonds. It produces 80% diamond in the world and it is also in the production of platinum. Interestingly, Vedanta and Anglo American together are producing almost everything that is available under this earth. In addition, we are trying to convince them to come to India, and start a business here. But they fear being here as they think that they will not be able to work in the country due to certain reasons like bureaucracy.
Aluminium has the power to change the face of India. In addition, India is a home of bauxite and coal and we have invested about $15 billion in establishing world-class plants with a capacity of 4 million tonne. And, India consumes nearly 3.6 million tonne of aluminium but 60% of it is imported. The government should act fast and increase the import duty on aluminium from 2.5% to 10% and protect India from being a dumping ground for other countries, and India can consume its own production within the country. During your visits to ports, you will find that ample amount of aluminium scrap and coal is lying idle at the ports. The exercise will help the government in saving the precious forex reserve at this juncture where the rupee is depreciating against the dollar. Closure of Goa mines has affected the lives of more than 3 lakh people. I want to ask the reason for shutting down the production at least when the industry has been functioning for the last seven decades. This closure is forcing other companies, about 400-500, who are dependent on us, to import these materials.
The National Green Tribunal has given a clean chit to the plant with certain recommendations and we are working on it. And, I feel that the plant will start production in the next 20 days or a month.
Electrosteel is very close to my heart as it is providing a chance to serve Bihar, the state from which I come from. During my interaction with Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das, I felt that he has a vision of creating something like Bokaro Steel Plant. Electrosteel has a production capacity of 1.4 million tonne and we want to take it to 2.5 mt with an estimated expense of around $300 million. Secondly, we are also trying to open a mine over there, which will help in creating new employment avenues of nearly 30,000-40,000 people in the state. In addition, we are also working on a plan to come up with a new plant with a production capacity of 5 mt.
Vedanta is a company that provides best earning opportunities to its shareholders as we always try to return the investments within three-four years. The best part of our business is that maximum part of our production is consumed internally in India. But, we expect that the government should stop its fight with us by introducing retrospective taxes. For instance, the introduction of retrospective taxes on oil has reduced its valuation from $15 billion to $3-4 billion. We have received 41 blocks and am supposed to start operations on these blocks in Assam, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan and this is going to be the largest oil exploration work in the world. But I need the support of several people from across the world, but the introduction of these retrospective taxes is stopping them to come forward and support us. However, I would like to inform our shareholders that Vedanta is a transparent and technology-driven company.
