New Delhi, May 10: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for wasting Rs 136 crore on the expansion of its Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline as the extra capacity was not eventually used.

The CAG report tabled in Parliament today said the lack of proper planning in capacity augmentation of the pipeline led to avoidable expenditure of Rs 66.68 crore.

The public sector oil company had built the 1,443-km pipeline in 1996 with an initial capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) at a cost of Rs 1,853 crore. IOC first expanded the capacity to 7.5 MTPA (Rs 42.62 crore) and again to 8.8 MTPA in September 2002 (Rs 66.68 crore).

The CAG report pointed out that the actual throughput of the pipeline during 1999-2000 to 2003-04 ranged between 6.9 MTPA to 5 MTPA and remained less than even the original installed capacity.

?The expenditure of Rs 66.68 crore incurred on the second phase expansion was avoidable since the throughput did not, at any time, justify such augmentation,? the report said.

The CAG further said the encashment of the bank guarantee of the contractor of Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline in excess of requirements resulted in payment of Rs 70.29 crore as interest.

The report also said the increase in the pipe size of Mathura-Tundla pipeline for extension of the pipeline to Kanpur and Gwalior and for expansion of Mathura refinery without approved proposals rendered the expenditure of Rs 6.20 crore ‘infructous’.

?Due to delayed review of the demand-supply situation, the company incurred an infructous expenditure of Rs 2.24 crore on the capacity augmentation of the Panipat-Ambala-Jalandhar sections of the Mathura-Jalandhar pipeline,? the CAG report added.

The petroleum ministry, in its submission to the CAG, said, ?Proposals were now being put up in a comprehensive manner involving marketing/refineries and pipeline parts as a whole.?