BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Thursday announced that it has withdrawn the incentive of deferred payment of VAT for 11 years by Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s (IOCL) oil refinery project at Paradip.
A decision to this effect was taken at the Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday. Making a statement in this regard in the Assembly, Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said because of the delay in commissioning of the project by IOCL, the amount of deferred payment would be Rs 69,892 crore. The loss to the exchequer will be Rs 22,745 crore, he said.
At the time of signing of the MoU, the amount of deferred VAT would have been Rs 9763 crore and the loss to the exchequer Rs 4,412 crore, he said and added that as per the MoU signed between the State Government and IOCL in 2004, the project should have been completed in 2009-10.
Besides, as per the MoU, the capacity of the refinery should have been nine million tonne per annum. However, the capacity was later increased to 15 million tonne per year, he said.
Stating that IOCL is a profit making company and capable of raising resources, the Minister said it does not need incentives like interest-free loan or deferred VAT payment.