Assam moves Gauhati High Court on oil royalty issue

Assam government has approached the Gauhati High Court seeking a direction to energy firms like ONGC and OIL to pay royalty on crude oil on pre-discounted rate to the state in accordance with a Supreme Court order.
"We have recently filed a petition to Gauhati High Court regarding the royalty issue by oil producers. We want the high court to direct the companies to pay royalty to Assam as per the Supreme Court decision regarding a petition by Gujarat," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told reporters here.
The Supreme Court in its interim order had directed ONGC to pay crude oil royalty to Gujarat on pre-discounted crude price beginning February 1, 2014.

Earlier, the Gujarat High Court on a petition filed by the Gujarat government had held that the royalty should be payable to the state on market price of crude oil and not on post-discount price.
Gogoi had strongly mentioned the issue in a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day visit to Assam on November 29-30.
"The amount of discount has at times been as high as 90 per cent or more. This has resulted in cumulative loss of revenue of more than Rs 10,000 crore to Assam since 2008-09. You would agree that a special category state like Assam cannot afford such a huge loss of revenue," the Chief Minister had said in the memorandum.