Commercial tax dept guns for unscrupulous miners

Asks vigilance probe team to provide details of four miners

The commercial tax department of the Odisha government is planning to recover sales taxes and other dues from miners who have been named by the state vigilance team in its reports on illegal mining.

It has requested the vigilance team to provide the details of such malicious transactions of four miners.

"The officials of the Directorate of Vigilance have conducted enquiries and have submitted reports on illegal mining of iron and manganese ores in the state of Odisha. It is, therefore, requested that relevant information may please be shared with Commercial Tax Department so as to take necessary action on evasion of government revenues under OVAT Act, 2004 and CST Act, 1956," the letter from commercial tax department to the vigilance wing of state police said. The lessees whose details have been sought by department are Indrani Patnaik (Unchabali mines), Rungta (Silijora Kalimati mines), Sirajuddin & Co (Bagda mines) and one Basant Kumar Das (Kasia Beda mines).

The vigilance department, which was assigned the task of investigating illegal mining activities in 2009, has so far booked cases against 59 government officials and 10 firms. In the last winter session, Steel and Mines minister, Rajnikant Singh had said that the vigilance wing was fighting 10 cases which are pending at different courts against some firms and individuals. The firms included Indrani Patnaik, B D Patnaik, Thriveni Earthmovers, Sirajuddin & Co, and Mangilal Rungta. The department has also filed cases against two private persons-Sajiad Yusuf Bhat and Satya Priya Mishra in connection with illegal mining, the minister had said in a written reply. However, the details of the tax evasion due to alleged mineral theft has not been made public by the vigilance probe. Recently, leaked reports of Shah Commission suggested that several miners, who excavated iron ore and manganese without necessary forest and environment clearances, owe the state exchequer nearly Rs 60,000 crore in terms of the market value of the minerals.

The commercial tax department will collect value added tax and central sales tax over and above the mineral value, said an official source.