Odisha's commercial tax collection on slow lane

Commercial tax collection from mining include sales taxes of central and state govts along with entry taxes

The state government collected Rs 2,471.80 crore as revenue from commercial taxes during April-June period of current fiscal, registering a growth of seven per cent over the previous year.

The growth rate was 12.40 per cent during first quarter of 2013-14, information available with the commercial tax website showed.

In a recently conducted review meeting, it was revealed that tax collection showed negative trends in as many as 17 circles out of 45 circles with collection in Sambalpur-II circle tumbling by more than 45 per cent.

The major reason attributed for shortfall was the conversion of monthly dealers to quarterly dealers..

Among others, Barbil circle witnessed 26.7 per cent fall in commercial tax collection, the second biggest drop among circles reporting negative growth.

“Barbil circle has shown less collection of taxes due to discontinuance of mining dealers like Sharada Mines, KJS Ahluwalia and R P Sao etc,” said a report submitted by the commercial tax office to the state government this week.

Commercial tax collection from mining include sales taxes of central and state governments along with entry taxes. Barbil is home to many large iron ore mining company offices.

On May 16 this year, the Supreme Court had directed the Odisha government to halt mining operation at 26 mines, citing that automatic renewal of mines lease after 20 years of first renewal was illegal. It had also asked the state government to take steps to expedite renewal process of all the mines, especially of captive mines of SAIL and Tata Steel, within six months from the order.

Following this, the Odisha government had asked 26 mines to stop operation at their respective sites. It had also imposed restrictions on the transportation of minerals excavated and stocked earlier.

However, on May 29, the state government allowed operation at seven captive mines of Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), as well as an Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) mine, and said the firms must take steps to secure clearances to renew their mining leases within three months as it feared loss of mining revenue, which included 10 per cent royalty on iron ore sale price.

Mining operation at remaining 18 sites , including Ahluwalia, R P Sao and Sarada, are yet to start as the state government has not taken any decision to restart operation.