)
The state government has finally collected Rs 872 crore by way of electricity duty (ED) arrears from National Aluminium Company (Nalco).
The case pertaining to the arrears was pending for disposal at the Supreme Court. After waiting for over 20 years, the state finally managed to extract the dues when both parties - Nalco and the state government mutually agreed for an out of court settlement. It may be noted that Nalco was reeling under a whopping ED arrear of Rs 1,156.32 crore.
"The ED arrears of Nalco were collected towards the end of last fiscal. An out of court settlement formula is also being considered for other defaulters like Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA). We are in talks with both the entities and will persuade them to withdraw cases from the courts," said a government official.
While IMFA's case is pending in the Supreme Court, RSP's case is yet to be disposed off by the Odisha High Court.
RSP, a unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), has ED arrear of Rs 61.25 crore. IMFA's arrears are estimated at Rs 40.26 crore. Both companies had gone to court, challenging the power dues slapped on them by the state government.
Other industries with ED dues against them are Paradeep Phosphates Ltd- PPL (Rs 18.90 crore), Ballarpur Industries Ltd, Jeypore (Rs 33.03 crore), Mangalam Timbers Production Ltd, Nabarangpur (Rs 13 lakh), Shree Mahavir Ferro Alloys Ltd, Sundargarh (Rs 6.74 crore), Bindal Sponge Pvt Ltd- Talcher (Rs 7.09 crore), Maithan Ispat Ltd- Jajpur (Rs 16.83 crore), OSWAL Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd (Rs 18.59 crore), Jayashree Chemicals Ltd- Ganjam (Rs 4.5 crore) and Shree Metalicks Ltd - Barbil (Rs 33 lakh).
