Close to 70% of the claims made by companies related to the Essar Group on Essar Steel have been rejected by the resolution professional (RP). Documents updated till June 14 reveal that while these companies, as operational creditors, had asked for a sum of Rs 5,710 crore, the bulk of this or Rs 4,000 crore has been turned down. This included the biggest claim of Rs 2,498 crore from Essar Steel Jharkhand. Footnotes detailing the reasons behind the rejection say the company — now known as Edwell Metal and Trading — failed to furnish certain papers that it had agreed to do. Satish Kumar Gupta, the RP, said that “despite repeated reminders on March 15, 19 and 23, 2018, copies of the stamped agreements have not been submitted and in view of non-availability of duly stamped agreements, the claim has not been admitted”. The other claims turned down include those from Essar Power (Rs 893 crore), Essar Project (India) (Rs 500 crore) and Essar Power MP (Rs 88 crore). The data also showed that the claims by Essar group firms account for approximately a fourth of the total claims filed by all operational creditors of Essar Steel, estimated at Rs 24,056 crore.
