Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the government never talked about zero loss in allocation of coal blocks. In a statement issued in New Delhi he alleged that a section of the press has incorrectly reported it.

Referring to the media-briefing jointly addressed by him, Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Friday last, Mr Chidambaram said that none of them used the phrase zero loss. The Minsiter said , he had stated that if coal is not mined, if coal remains buried in mother earth, where is the loss.

The loss can arise only if one tonne of coal is taken out of mother earth and sold at some unacceptable price or value.