CBI booked A L Bongirwar, the then TAMP Chairman, M J Subbaiah, the then Member and R C Venkatraman, the then Secretary, besides Navi Mumbai-based private firm Nhava Sheva International Container Ltd on charges of criminal conspiracy and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption act.
In its chargesheet filed before special CBI court here, the agency alleged TAMP delayed the tariff review for five years during 2000-05, thus allowing Nhava Sheva International Container Ltd to accumulate huge profits by way of tariff collection from port users at old rates and increased traffic inflow.
TAMP allowed the firm to retain 50 per cent of the surplus accumulated for the period 2000 to 2005 which was Rs 472 crore in the tariff order of July 2005 by retrospective application of the tariff guidelines issued by the Ministry of Shipping on 31st March, 2005, it alleged.
CBI said in a statement that TAMP allowed the entire royalty running into Rs 116 crores(approx) as a cost item for the period 2000 to 2005 in the July 2005 tariff order without looking into if the operator was making a profit or was running in loss and also not following the guidelines of the Ministry of Shipping.
"The firm was also allowed to retain an amount of Rs.236 crores (approx) which was collected from port users in an illegal manner and also gained a benefit of Rs. 116 crores (approx) by treating royalty as a cost item and recovering the same from the port users for the period 2000 to 2005," CBI said in a statement. More