The Centre’s decision to collect royalty on iron ore on ad valorem basis, instead of at a fixed rate earlier, has paid rich dividends to the Orissa government.
The royalty is now collected at the rate of 10 per cent of the market value of iron and this has helped the state government to exceed its mining revenue target for 2009-10 by Rs 365 crore.
The total collections stood at Rs 1965.04 crore, which is 46.65 percent higher than Rs 1340 crore achieved in the previous fiscal.
This is significant in the backdrop of the government drive against the illegal mining activities in the state. The state had collected Rs 1,340.13 crore as mining revenue in 2008-09 against the target of Rs 1,250 crore.
Among the circles which failed to achieve the target included Talcher, Sambalpur, Jajpur Road, Koraput, Cuttack, Berhampur, Kalahandi and Phulbani.
On the other hand, the collections exceeded the target in six circles namely Joda, Rourkela, Koira, Baripada, Keonjhar, Bolangir.
It may be noted, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) decided to levy royalty on iron ore on ad valorem basis in August last year. Orissa was demanding the introduction of this system for royalty collection since long time.
