Mahanadi Coalfields, Odisha Mining Corp yet to pay off Rs 1,389 cr mining royalty

MCL has lion's share of arrear stockpile with its 15 coal mines owing Rs 1,385 cr

At a time when there is downtrend in mining revenue and the state government is struggling to shore up collections, royalty dues worth Rs 1389.38 crore are still pending on Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

MCL has the lion's share of the arrear stockpile with its 15 coal mines owing Rs 1385 crore. The Samaleswari mine alone in Sambalpur district is saddled with a whopping Rs 1322 crore arrear, says a written statement to the state assembly by finance minister Pradip Amat.

A host of other MCL mines, including eight in Talcher Coalfields- Jagannath, Bharatpur, Ananta, Balaram, Lingaraj, Hingula, Bhubaneswari and Kaniha, four others in Sambalpur district- Orient, Rampur, BDCM and Lajpur and the Basundhara coal mine in Rourkela circle share the remaining dues.

For state run miner OMC, Rs 4.55 crore arrear is yet to be paid by one of its iron ore mines in Koira circle.

Mining dues apart, industrial water cess dues are pending on MCL, Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) and East Coast Railways (ECoR).

According to the minister's reply, power dues have piled up on three big corporates- National Aluminium Company- Nalco, Angul (Rs 1332.47 crore), Rourkela Steel Plant- RSP (Rs 75.02 crore) and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd- IOCL (Rs 4.95 crore)

Moreover, commercial tax arrears of Rs 1252.22 crore are yet to be extracted from organizations like Nalco, Bhubaneswar (Rs 288.06 crore), Steel Authority of India Ltd- SAIL (Rs 473.17 crore), Nalco, Koraput (Rs 75.41 crore), NTPC, Angul (Rs 69.06 crore), MCL (Rs 45.20 crore), MMTC, Bhubaneswar (Rs 33.11 crore) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd- HPCL (Rs 25.99 crore) to name a few.