The Tatas have finally pulled out from the board of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), a 43:43:14 venture between The Chatterjee Group (TCG) of the US, the West Bengal government and the Tatas from which their exit had been signalled earlier this year.“Two of the Tata nominees in the HPL board — myself and Shyamal Gupta — have resigned,” Tata group chairman Ratan Tata told reporters after a meeting with the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, at Writers’ Buildings here on Monday. Earlier in the day, at the 39th annual general meeting of the shareholders of Tata Tea Ltd, Tata said that his group’s equity holding of around Rs 12 crore in HPL has been converted into a loan. He said that an agreement has been arrived at between HPL and the Tata Group that this loan amount will be repaid in 12 installments.“We are supposed to receive Rs 1 crore in every quarter. We have already received the first quarter installment of Rs 1 crore and expect to receive the remaining Rs 11 crore in the next 11 installments,” he said. Although the chief minister confirmed the resignation of the Tata nominees from the HPL board, he refused to comment on the mode of repayment. “This is a vital issue and I do not want to make any comment on it right at this moment,” he told reporters.
