BHUBANESWAR: The Centre turned down the State government request for settling its claim of Rs 560 crore paid by Aditya Birla Group-owned Hindalco Industries as additional levy on coal produced from Talabira-I coal block.
Responding to a query from BJD Rajya Sabha MP Prasanta Nanda, Union Minister of Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi informed the Upper House on Monday, December 20, 2021, that the amount will not be released to the State government.
He said that the amount of Rs 560 crore paid by Hindalco Industries Limited pertains to the additional levy on coal produced from Talabira -I coal block. “The issue of additional levy accruing either to Central government or to State government concerned was examined in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Law and Justice. The Ministry of Law was requested to obtain the opinion of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) in the matter who opined that the amount would not accrue to the state governments,” the Union Minister said.
He, however, said that the Chhattisgarh government has filed a suit under Article 131 of the Constitution of India in the Supreme Court in a similar case. Describing its claim legitimate, the State government has been requesting the Centre to release the amount since 2015 following a communication from the Union Coal Ministry. The Ministry had asked the state governments to submit claims in respect of revenue, taxes, cess, additional levy and other unpaid amount by previous allottees of coal blocks before 26 March, 2015. The Finance Minister of the State has been raising the issue during the pre-budget consultative meetings with the Ministry of Finance since then without any positive response from the Centre.
The Centre realised additional levy with respect to coal extracted from the prior allottees of 31 cancelled Schedule-II coal mines in various states. Additional levy is collected at Rs 295 a tonne for each tonne excavated by coal mines allocated since 1993 as per Supreme Court order on cancellation of coal blocks. The operators have already deposited the amount with the Coal Controller.
The total additional levy deposited to the Centre was Rs 6,149.6 crore, out of which Hindalco Industries, previous owner of Talabira-I, had deposited more than Rs 560 crore. Other State governments such as Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have made similar claims.
The Odisha government has also urged the Centre to compensate coal-bearing states from the negative externalities of coal mining and coal-based power generation by sharing 60 per cent of the clean energy cess collected by the Central government.