Anil Ambani's Reliance Power Ltd. and its subsidiaries have been prohibited from participating in any future tenders by Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. for a period of three years following the discovery that they submitted fraudulent bank guarantees.
'Fake bank guarantees submitted in the last round of bidding are the reason for the debarment,' SECI said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the documents that Reliance NU BESS Ltd., formerly known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd., submitted, the bank guarantee endorsement against the earnest money deposit was deemed to be fraudulent, according to SECI.
Reliance Power's subsidiary wasn't qualified
Reliance Power's subsidiary had 'obtained the strength of its parent company to meet the financial qualification requirements.'
The government enterprise in India came to the reasonable conclusion that the parent company was essentially responsible for all strategic and commercial decisions. As a result, it became essential to prevent Reliance Power from taking part in any upcoming SECI tenders.`
SECI called Bids for following
In June, SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) issued a call for bids for a 1 gigawatt solar power and a 2 gigawatt standalone battery energy storage system. Due to inconsistencies in the bid made by Reliance NU BESS Ltd., a division of Reliance Power, the bidding process was subsequently terminated at a progressive stage.
In June of this year, the Reliance Power subsidiary filed a foreign bank guarantee as part of the procedure, accompanied by an email from the State Bank of India with the email address sbi.17313@s-bi.co.in.
SECI opened an inquiry after determining that the email was suspicious. SBI subsequently clarified that the email was sent from a phoney email address and that they never provided any such support.
Reliance blamed a third party
A third-party arranger was allegedly held accountable by Reliance NU BESS for the fraudulent bank guarantee. Nevertheless, SECI makes no mention of such a third party throughout the course of its investigation.
As a result, the bidding process was cancelled, and SECI took action against Reliance Power and Reliance NU BESS.
Anil Ambani got barred from security market
The debarment by SECI is just one of the numerous problems that Anil Ambani's Reliance Group is dealing with.
Ambani was fined Rs 25 crore and banned from the securities market for five years by the Securities and Exchanges Board of India in August. Even though the Securities Appellate Tribunal prevented SEBI from collecting the fine in October, the securities market ban is still in effect.
