DRI to appeal dismissal of show-cause notice in Adani case

New Delhi, Nov 21: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has said it still has time to appeal against the dismissal of the show-cause notice it served on the Adani Group for allegedly over-invoicing imports to the tune of around Rs 5,000 crore ($770 million).

A senior DRI official told IANS that the agency has till December 14 to appeal.

The official said the agency had three months to review an adjudication order and a further one month to appeal against it.

As the review order was issued on November 15, he said the Commissioner of Customs had till December 14 to file the appeal before the tribunal.

The show cause notice was issued in May 2014 after the DRI investigated three companies of the Adani group involved in the import of power generation equipment. It had alleged significant over-valuation of the imports.

Subsequently, the DRI issued two more show-cause notices to several other Adani group firms alleging similar over-valuation of imports in their transactions.

Over-valuation of power equipment allows firms to make a case for artificially raising tariffs before the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission or state regulatory commissions. Ultimately this affects consumers who have to pay a higher cost for power.

However, in August this year, in what was seen as a blow to the DRI investigation, an adjudicating authority of the agency dropped all proceedings against the Adani group.

The decision to challenge the order dropping the proceedings against the Adani group companies sets at rest speculation in a section of the media that the DRI may not go in appeal.