VW decides to pay Rs 11 crore to Andhra

Schuster — against whom Volkswagen has filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Brunswick — was sacked from the company in June after his dubious role in a bribery scam came into light.

Speaking to The Indian Express over phone from Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfburg, Germany, Company Spokesperson Thomas Mickeleit said, ‘‘Volkswagen has no stake in Vashishta Wahan in terms of equity participation. However, we were aware of the company and knew about it all through. Vashishta Wahan was originally set up as a project company which was to have been responsible for building a factory in India for Volkswagen — following an investment decision by the Volkswagen Board of Management — which is still pending.’’

Clarifying the company’s decision to shell out the sum transferred by the Andhra Pradesh government to Vashishta Wahan in January and pay it back to to the state, Mickeleit said, ‘‘It is not that Volkswagen is guilty. We have decided to pay the money to Andhra Pradesh as Schuster — while he was our employee — had misled the state and committed the fraud. He acted without authority and we decided to take responsibility of paying Andhra Pradesh.’’

When asked to comment on VW’s earlier stand of not knowing Vashishta Wahan, he maintained that the carmaker had nothing to with Vashishta Wahan in terms of share.

The Andhra Pradesh government had transferred 2 million Euros (about Rs 11 crore) to Vashishta Wahan after Schuster wrote to them that the automobile major had finally decided to set up a manufacturing unit in Vizag. 2 million Euros were transferred as the first installment of government’s equity participation.

Advisor to the AP government on economic affairs and policy implementation D. Somayajulu blamed VW for the controversy. ‘‘Our stand has been vindicated. From day one we have been maintaining that everything had been done as per set procedure. Though we had transferred the money before signing the MoU, the step was taken only after we had got the clearance from established auditors like Amarchand Mangaldas,’’ he said. He stated that the state would now move to call off the CBI enquiry which had been marked to investigate the matter.

However, the Volkswagen Group will call to account those responsible for the damage. A team of senior officials from AP would be leaving for Germany to partake in the proceedings. VW maintains that they are still keen on setting up a manufacturing unit in India. ‘‘We are very careful in our dealings now in while evaluating the proposals,’’ said Mickeleit.