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ASSURANCE
STATEMENT |
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Ernst & Young LLP
22,
Camac Street
5th Floor, Block 'B'
Kolkata-700 016, India
Tel: +91 33 6615 3400
Fax: +91 33 6615 3750
ey.com |
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The Management and Board of Directors
Vedanta Resources Plc
16th Berkeley Street, London, United Kingdom, W1J 8DZ |
| Independent Assurance Statement |
| Ernst & Young LLP (EY) has been engaged by Vedanta Resources Plc (the 'Company') to provide independent assurance on its Sustainable Development Report 2015-16 (the 'Report') covering the Company's sustainability performance during the period 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016. |
| The development of the Report, based on G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI-G4) of the Global Reporting Initiative, its content, and presentation is the sole responsibility of the management of the Company. EY's responsibility, as agreed with the management of the Company, is to provide independent assurance on the Report's content as described in the scope of assurance. Our responsibility in performing our assurance activities is to the management of the Company only and in accordance with the terms of reference agreed with the Company. We do not therefore accept or assume any responsibility for any other purpose or to any other person or organisation. Any dependence that any such third party may place on the Report is entirely at its own risk. The assurance report should not be taken as a basis for interpreting the Company's overall performance, except for the aspects mentioned in the scope below. |
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| Assurance standard |
| Our assurance is in accordance with International Federation of Accountants' International Standard for Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information (ISAE 3000), and our conclusions are for 'limited' assurance as set out in ISAE 3000. |
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| Scope of assurance and methodology |
| The scope of our work for this engagement was limited to review of information pertaining to environmental and social performance for the period 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016. We conducted, on a sample basis, review and verification of data collection/ measurement methodology and general review of the logic of inclusion / omission of necessary relevant information / data and this was limited to: |
- Review of consistency of data / information within the report as well as between the report and source;
- Review the level of adherence to GRI G4 Guidelines, the reporting framework followed by the Client in preparing
the Sustainability Report, alignment with United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), International Council on Mining
and Metals(ICMM) and Sustainable Development Goal frameworks for the Company;
- Review and execution of audit trail of selected claims and data streams to determine the level of accuracy in
collection, transcription and aggregation processes;
- Review of Company's plans, policies and practices, pertaining to their social, environment and sustainable
development, so as to be able to make comments on the completeness of the reporting and degree to which EY
believes the Report provides a fair and honest representation of the Company's activities;
- Verification of the sample data and information reported at the following units / locations and Corporate Office at
Gurgaon:
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Hindustan Zinc Limited
(Chanderiya smelters) Rajasthan |
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Hindustan Zinc Limited
(Rampur Agucha mine) Rajasthan |
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Vedanta Limited
(Sterlite Copper) Tamil Nadu |
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Bharat Aluminium Company Limited
(smelters & power plants) Chhattisgarh |
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Vedanta Limited
(Jharsuguda smelters & power plants) Orissa |
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Zinc International,
Black Mountain mine, South Africa |
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Cairn India Limited,
Corporate Office, Gurgaon |
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Vedanta Resources Plc,
Corporate Office, Gurgaon |
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| Limitations of our engagement |
| The assurance scope excludes: |
- Data and information outside the defined reporting period (1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016);
- The 'economic performance indicators' included in the Report;
- The Company's statements that describe expression of opinion, belief, inference, aspiration, expectation,
aim or future intention;
- Data, statements and claims already available in the public domain through Annual Report,
Corporate Social Responsibility reports, or other sources available in the public domain.
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| Our assurance team and independence |
| Our assurance team, comprising of multidisciplinary professionals, has been drawn from our Climate Change and Sustainability network, and undertakes similar engagements with various Indian and international companies. As an assurance provider, EY is required to comply with the independence requirements set out in International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. EY's independence policies and procedures ensure compliance with the Code. |
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| What we did to form our conclusions |
| In order to form our conclusions, we undertook the following key steps: |
- Interviews with select key personnel and the core team responsible for the preparation of the Report to
understand the Company's sustainability vision, mechanism for management of sustainability issues and
engagement with key stakeholders;
- Interactions with the key personnel at the Company's head office and units/locations in order to understand and
review the current processes in place for capturing the relevant data disclosed in the Report;
- Verification of the reported data, on a sample basis, at the Company's corporate office and units/locations as
mentioned in the 'Scope of Assurance and Methodology' above;
- Review of relevant documents and systems for gathering, analysing and aggregating sustainability performance
data in the reporting period;
- Review of selected qualitative statements and sample case studies in various sections of the Report.
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| Observations and opportunities for improvement |
| During the review process, we observed that: |
- The Company has compiled the Report as per the 'in accordance' core criteria of GRI G4 Sustainability Reporting
Guidelines. The Report presents a fair description of the Company's materiality assessment and includes
performance disclosures under the aspects identified as material;
- The Company has demonstrated a structured approach towards data management for sustainability performance
reporting in line with GRI G4 Guidelines. However, it may further improve on the accuracy, compilation and
completeness of reporting on certain indicators viz. safety and human resource data;
- The Company may further strengthen internal review of the sustainability performance data for increasing
reliability as well as auditability of the same.
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| Conclusion |
| On the basis of our procedures for this limited assurance, nothing has come to our attention that causes us not to believe that the Company has reported on sustainability issues materially significant to its business and its stakeholders. |
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| Ernst & Young LLP |
Sudipta Das
Partner |
16-06-2016
Kolkata, India |
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| EY refers to the global organisation, and / or one or more of the independent member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited |
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| For more information visit our group companies |
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