If there is no production, as the government has said, how can there be any loss from the coal mines allotted? After all, the coal remains in the ground. This presumes the government is going to, as in the case of the 2G licences, cancel the mines allotted. If, however, the mines aren’t going to be de-allocated, the profits will be made when the mining is done. The CAG was simply doing an exercise in what the losses were likely to be; whether the mining is done or not is irrelevant.