Revise royalty on major minerals to ad valorem-Naveen

Bhubaneswar, Dec 27 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naven Patnaik today called up on his counterparts in Jharkhand and Chhatishgarh to make common cause in urging the Centre to revise the royalty on major minerals on an ad valorem basis fixed at 20-25 per cent of the sale price of the minerals.

Addressing the meeting on promoting the interest of the mineral rich states attended by Chhatishgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda along with their senior officials, Mr Patnaik said any delay in the revision of the minerals would leave the mineral rich states high and dry even through the current period of economic boom.

The mineral rich states were left at the mercy of the concerned ministries of the central government, which were reluctant to revise the rates on royalty on major minerals while the Centre has been benefiting from the rapid growth of industrialisation by way of increased flow of central excise,'' he noted.

Mr Patnaik further said the policies of the union government have only favoured the trend to the detriment of mineral rich states. The freight equalisation system of the Centre have for many years knocked away the locational advantage of the mineral rich states tothe advantage of the consuming states, '' he said, adding that unfortunately their poicies did not come to the aid of the state governments. The royalty on major minerals such as iron ore remained a small fraction of the sale price of the mineral working out to be barely one to two per cent of the price of the iron ore.''he said.

The orissa CM further said the Ministry of Power also followed a policy of power which goes against the interest of the mineral rich states as it denied any advantage to the states having coal deposits like Orissa and Jharkhand.

It has been estimated that for every 1000 MW of power produced, the consuming states got the advantage of about Rs.500 crores a year while states having coal deposits would be faced with staggering problem of ash pond management and displacement of people.

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