Billionaire industrialist Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Limited, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 4, requesting to allow the opening of its Sterlite Copper plant in Tamil Nadu in the overall interests of the economy.
According to Mr. Agarwal, India has lost over ₹40,000 crore due to closure of this plant, of which $1.2 billion was lost in foreign exchange alone.
Citing media reports in Pakistan, Mr. Agarwal said in his letter that Islamabad’s copper shipments to China had increased 400% in the last three years to $550 million last year, boosting Pakistan’s local economy even as Chinese firms were vying to capture India’s copper market.
“My care and concern is that the closure has impacted our country in multiple ways; country has become, for the first time in the last two decades, a net importer rather than an exporter of copper resulting in a heavy import bill,” Mr. Agarwal said in his letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Hindu.
Due to the closure of the plant, thousands of workers had been rendered jobless, aggravating the unemployment situation and adding to the exodus of the migrants.
“The closure has led to idling and rusting of precious machinery and materials and loss of revenue to the exchequers of both the Centre and the Government of Tamil Nadu in the form taxes, cess, etc,” Mr. Agarwal said in the letter.