Rs 51,941.13 crore tax revenue not realised in Odisha

Odisha government today admitted that Rs 51,941.13 crore tax revenue from various business firms have not been realised as 7,180 cases were pending in different courts like Orissa High Court and the Supreme Court.
"Collection of commercial tax, water tax, electricity bill, mining revenue and other taxes amounting to Rs 51,941.13 crore is stalled due to court cases," Finance Minister Pradip Amat said in the Assembly while replying a series of questions on non-realisation of revenue from different sources.
While the highest amount of Rs 46,191.69 crore could not be collected from the mining sector, Rs 3563.28 crore also remained non-realised as commercial tax.

Similarly, Amat said, water tax worth Rs 738.89 crore also could not be collected from different firms and companies as they had moved the Orissa High Court.
An amount of Rs 1367.99 crore and Rs 52.29 crore could not be collected as electricity bill and forest development tax respectively, he said.
Members cutting across party lines expressed concern over the issue during the question hour.

The government's inability to collect mining revenue and water tax from different industries due to court cases was raised by the Leader of Opposition Narasimha Mishra of Congress, Congress MLA Naba Dash, Anshuman Mohanty, Yogesh Singh and Prafulla Majhi.

Ruling party MLAs Debasis Samantray, Amar Satapathy and Prafulla Samal also spoke on the issue and wanted to know about the steps being taken by the government for realisation of un-realised amount.
The finance minister said 107 cases regarding mining revenue are under consideration of the Central government's Revision Authority.