Mining revenue down by 20% in July

The gloomy scenario in the state’s mining sector, initially set off by restrictions put by the government on mining operations and then precipitated by the slowdown in the economy, is reflected by continuous slide in revenue collection from the sector, which is a major contributor to the state’s overall kitty.

Continuing the trend, the state steel and mines department has fallen short of its revenue target in July by 19.57 percent. As against its goal to collect Rs 541 crore, the actual collections stood at Rs 435.09 crore in the month, a decline of Rs 105.91 crore.

For the April- July period, the department has also failed to achieve its target of Rs 1930 crore and managed to collect only Rs 1723.87 crore.

 

However, the revenue collections in the first four months of the current year are more than the comparable period of the last year. April-July collections this year is Rs 1723.87 crore, which is 11.02 percent higher than the last year’s same period figure of Rs 1552.74 crore.

In June, the department too had failed to achieve its revenue collection target. The state had managed to collect only Rs 382.42 crore against the target of Rs 492 crore, a decline of Rs 109.58 crore.

It may be noted that, the mining revenue collection target by the Chief Secretary has been pegged at Rs 5700 crore for this fiscal, 35.71 per cent higher than the budgetary estimate (BE) of Rs 4200 crore after the segment contributed a whopping Rs 4517.10 crore to the state exchequer in 2011-12.

To give a boost to the mining revenue collection, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been demanding introduction of Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) on windfall gains made by miners. The state expected to garner additional revenue of Rs 4000-5000 crore from the mining sector if the Centre introduces the tax.

Patnaik had written to Union minister of state for mines Dinsha Patel and sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pitching for levy of MRRT on miners.