The Congress on Monday accused the government of “benefitting” its “friends” by making blending of imported coal mandatory for domestic power producers.

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh alleged that the Modi government devised this model to benefit “friends” and this will lead to higher cost of power that will hurt common people.

He alleged that the government first made imported coal blending mandatory and then awarded a contract for importing coal to its “friends”, who are now selling imported coal to power producers at seven to ten times the cost of domestic coal, thus making windfall profits.

“The Modi government has developed a wonderful arrangement which is a three-step friend benefit model. Under this, it mandated all coal based power stations to have 10 percent imported coal to blend for power production,” he alleged. Vallabh further claimed that a contract for import of coal worth Rs 4,035 crore, for importing nearly 2.5 million tonnes of coal at Rs 16,700 per tonne, was awarded to Adani Enterprises for this imported coal.

“As a result of this, coal-based power generators in the country will have to buy this imported coal at Rs 20,000 per tonne, thus paying seven to 10 times more than the usual costs which hovers around Rs 1700 to Rs 2000 per tonne of domestic coal,” the Congress leader alleged.

“The result is that power costs will go up for domestic and industrial consumption, thus hurting the common people the most,” he claimed. “This is a three-pronged strategy for institutionalising the friend benefit policy,” Vallabh alleged.

There was no immediate comment available from either the government or Adani Enterprises.