Odisha CM urges Union Min to hike coal royalty to 20 percent

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today wrote to Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal urging the latter to take into account the long pending claim of the State Government to revise the rate of royalty on coal from existing 14 percent to 20 percent.

“While the rate of royalty on coal has remained unchanged for the last six years, the rate of clean energy cess levied on coal has been raised from Rs 50 to Rs 400 per tonne during the period. Since introduction of clean energy cess on coal from 2010-11, the Central Government has collected about Rs 17,300 crores up to March 2018, whereas during this period, the royalty received by the State is only Rs 11,000 crore. The State Government has been requesting for a share of at least 60 percent of such funds to deal with negative externalities. This may be considered by the Central Government early,” the CM wrote in a letter addressed to the Union Minister.

“Similarly, the profit before tax of MCL has increased from Rs 5,314.24 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 7,339.66 crore in 2017-18, registering a robust growth of over 38 percent. The MCL had contributed about Rs 2,021 crore to the Central exchequer during 2014-15, which increased more than three times to about Rs 6,163 crore during 2017-18. On the other hand, MCL has not yet paid the compensation amount of Rs 8,297.77 crore towards the cost of about 180 million tonnes of coal extracted in excess of the permissible limits under environmental clearance. It is requested that the MCL may be directed to make the said payment urgently,” the CM said in the letter.