Rs 1,635 cr water cess pending on 251 industries

As many as 251 industries operating in the state including big corporate players like National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Tata Steel and Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) owe Rs 1,634.71 crore (as on September 2011) to the government by way of water cess.

A written reply furnished by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the state assembly says 16 large industries which together owe Rs 1,422.04 crore of water tax, have filed 24 cases in the Orissa High Court.

To recover water dues from all the errant players, the state government has fixed two per cent compounded interest per month and has rapped them to expedite water tax payment by issuing demand notice.

This apart, Enforcement Squad has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Chief Engineer to recover the dues from the industries.

The 16 players that have filed cases in the High Court (with their outstanding arrears in brackets) include Nalco-Angul (Rs 112.75 crore), Nalco-Damanjodi (Rs 27.04 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 3.39 crore), Tata Refractories (Rs 8.83 crore), Steel Authority of India Ltd- SAIL, Rourkela (Rs 1121.30 crore), Jayashree Chemicals Ltd (Rs 2.59 crore), Aska Cooperative Sugar Industries Ltd (Rs 12.65 lakh), Ganon & Dunkerely Co Ltd (Rs 1.22 lakh), J K Corporation-Rayagada (Rs 1.26 crore), South-Eastern Railways (Rs 14.70 crore), Ballarpur Industries Ltd-Choudwar (Rs 40.40 crore), Sakthi Sugar Ltd (Rs 2.17 crore), Orissa Synthetics Ltd (Rs 5.98 crore) later taken over by Reliance Industries Ltd, Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Rs 79.29 crore), PPT (Rs 2.12 crore) and IFGL Refractory (Rs 46,000).

Other industries in the dock include Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd-NINL (Rs 2.54 crore), Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (Rs 18. lakh), Aarat Steel (Rs 6.47 crore), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (Rs 30.24 lakh), Orient Paper Mills (Rs 29.18 crore), Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (Rs 2.12 crore), Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (Rs 10.84 crore), Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (Rs 25.31 crore) and Shyam DRI Power Ltd (Rs 14.13 crore) to name a few.