New Delhi: The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) in its draft report on coal mining in the country has accused the government of having given “undue benefits” to a number of companies leading to a loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore to the national exchequer.

The CAG report says that the government incurred the loss as coal blocks were not auctioned between 2004 and 2009, a news paper reported on Thursday.

The CAG draft report titled ‘Performance Audit of Coal Block Allocations’ said that the beneficiaries include some 100 private companies, as well as some Public Sector Units (power, steel and cement).

Of the estimated loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore, private firms cornered more than Rs 4.79 lakh crore while around Rs 5.88 lakh crore went to the PSUs, the paper said.

Among the major private sector beneficiaries are, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Tata Group entities, the Anil Agarwal Group firms, Aditya Birla Group companies, Essar Group’s power ventures, Adani Group, Arcelor Mittal India, Lanco Group, Jayaswal Neco, Electro Steel Castings Ltd, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd and Abhijeet Group.

While the PSU beneficiaries are NTPC, MMTC, many West Bengal government corporations, and mines and mineral development corporations of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

The CAG report is certain to cause discomfort to the government during the ongoing Budget Session even as it is yet to overcome the political Tsunami caused by the 2G spectrum scam.

The CAG in its report on 2G allocation had found that a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore was caused to the exchequer due to faulty auctioning of scare spectrum.

The Supreme Court had recently quashed 2G allocations and sought re-auctioning.