ET Awards: Industry, infrastructure will not get a raw deal, says Piyush Goyal

The government will ensure that “none of our people who are creating infrastructure, none of the people who have invested in India will get a raw deal”, railways and coal minister Piyush Goyal said at the ET Awards in Mumbai on Saturday, referring to the financial stress in the infrastructure sector. He also said in a conversation with ET’s R Sriram that a recent survey done by the BJP has revealed that the party alone will get about 300 seats in the 2019 general election. Edited excerpts:

What are the big things the Railways is doing to make India move ahead?
In the last 20-25 years we never planned for the railways with a holistic vision for the long run. There was a time we had a very celebrated railways minister (who) overloaded every train wagon carrying freight. In the short run this gave us very high returns on freight movement but completely messed up the entire track system. Over the years, we never had any significant capex to bring modern technology for passenger services, amenities, expanding the network. Prime Minister Modi is very focused on infrastructure. We have seen a 2.5x investment in railway infrastructure in four-and-a half years compared with previous five years. We are working on speed of action, expanding into areas hitherto unserved, we are very focused on safety. You will see accidents have come down significantly. And please do not blame the Amritsar tragedy on me — you cannot walk on to a track and then tell the railways you are responsible for trespassing.


Coal output rose initially, but recently there has been disappointing news…
Just to set the context right, this year India is importing less coal than ( the 210 million tonnes) imported in our first year in office. We do not have enough coking coal in India. We import about 50 million tonnes. IL&FS has a power plant in Tamil Nadu designed for imported coal. Even if I give it coal from Coal India, it cannot use it. That is the weakness of the previous government. They insisted that you design your power plant on imported coal, then we will give environmental permission. They never imagined the country could have 10% growth in coal production which we have this year. As regards the shortage, on April 1, 2017, pithead stocks were about 67 million tonnes. My officers refuse to produce any more. They said we cannot stock it. There will be fires. Power plants were not lifting coal because they thought whenever we want we will get it. In the monsoon, requirement shot up but production couldn’t keep pace in the monsoon.
So stocks dwindled and we have had a legacy (issue) for the last 16-18 months. But things are turning. Stocks are again rising. Imports also looked a little stretched in between because the Adani, Tatas and Essar plants were almost shut down because of the Supreme Court verdict. Because of this, those plants were not importing coal and therefore companies in the interiors of India had to import coal. There were very specific issues, but I am glad things are sorting themselves out.

Banks are not funding road infrastructure projects and there is RBI’s February 12 circular (which mandates insolvency proceedings for a debt servicing default beyond 180 days)…
I think it’s best I keep my mouth zipped. All my friends here — probably half of them — know my views about it, but let me not give you headlines.

Do you think the power and coal sector problems will get resolved?
Well, this government will certainly not allow this situation to go out of control. The government stands committed to that.

Will you go ahead irrespective of what the RBI does?
I did not say that. But the government will ensure come what may, what it takes, we will ensure that none of our industries, none of our people who are creating infrastructure, none of the people who have invested in India will get a raw deal.

Ahead of important assembly elections, followed by the general election, there’s some perception that the government is on the back foot…
I can give you one data point. In 2013, in August, September I had carried out a nationwide survey through an independent third party. At that time this was the world’s largest physical survey, of 230,000 respondents, in which I had predicted that the BJP would get an absolute majority by itself. This time, we expanded the scope of the survey across the length and breadth of the country. We asked 540,000 respondents, selected randomly through the computer. They have been interviewed physically for over 30 minutes on a tablet and reported straight into the system to ensure its sanctity. What they believe about the government and various questions, inflation, economy, the situation about their business, situation about the political scene, who they will vote for. I am happy to at least share the headline number that came out —the BJP looks to be winning between 297 and 303 seats by itself in 2019.