By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal Saturday rejected Orissa’s demand for revising its coal royalty, saying the existing rate was “more than sufficient”.
“There is no need to revise coal royalty. The prevailing royalty on coal is more than sufficient,” Jaiswal told reporters here after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the state secretariat.
Patnaik had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Aug 4 in New Delhi and demanded an immediate revision of the royalty on coal and non-coal minerals as the central government had not made any revision since 2004.
Saying the revision has been due since October 2007, the chief minister had also urged that royalty on non-coal minerals be revised and should be at least 20 percent of the price of such minerals ad valorem.
Expressing his unhappiness over the coal minister’s remark, Patnaik later told reporters that his government would take up the matter with the finance commission.
“Finance Commission is the appropriate authority to decide on the matter,” he said.
The chief minister added that he had already drawn the attention of the prime minister to the recommendations of the 11th and 12th Finance Commissions that states should be entitled to compensation in case revision is not done when due.
“While mining royalty is not being revised for years together, the union government has been levying export duty on different ores which is not being passed on to the states,” Patnaik had earlier said.
He had also urged that such levies should be entirely passed on to the states of origin of the exported ore.
Orissa is among the most mineral-rich states in India.