Naveen urges Prime Minister to hike coal royalty

Bhubaneswar, June 19 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reiterated his demand for hike in coal royalty, saying the state was incurring a loss of Rs 750 crore due to non-revision of royalty for past several years.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was released to the press here, Mr Patnaik said despite the provision in Mines and Minerals Act 1957 and the recommendation of the 11th Finance Commission for revision of coal royalty every three years, the Centre was not acting on the demands of the Orissa government.

He said Orissa was losing revenue of Rs 750 crore due to the non-revision of coal royalty.

Mr Patnaik said he had on many occasions drawn the attention of the Prime Minister in this regard.

Last year in june, Mr Patnaik said, he had written a letter to the Prime Minister to consider the demand.

The Chief Minister said he had also apprised Economic advisory Council Chairman Dr C Rangarajan and the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman on the revision of coal royalty.

The Chief Minister's letter to the Prime Minister came in the wake of recent statement of Union Coal Minister Sibu Soren that he was not aware of Orissa's demand for the revision of coal royalty.

Mr Soren though assured that he would consider the demand for the revision of the coal royalty but maintained that any upward revision of royalty would ultimately put more burden on the common people.

UNI DP PC RR DB2257