BSY regime urges Centre to revise royalty on major minerals
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
BANGALORE, JUNE 10: Even as Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and his miffed ministerial colleagues comprising mainly the Bellary mining lords G Janaradhana Reddy, G Karunakar Reddy and B Sriramulu as well as their flock of dissident BJP legislators are yet to iron out their differences, the state government has reiterated its demand with the Centre for a revision of the royalty rates on major minerals.
"The revision of royalty on major minerals is long overdue. The last revision was done in October 2007 and the delay has deprived the state of a major source of non-tax revenue," said former union minister and Karnataka’s special representative in Delhi V Dhananjaya Kumar.
Pointing out that Karnataka was getting a meagre revenue of Rs 80 crore a year from its exports of iron ore and other major minerals, Kumar said the state would have earned Rs 1,032 crore additional revenue for the one year period from October 2007 till September 2008 if the royalty rates were fixed at 10% ad valorem The chief minister, who visited Delhi recently and met Union finance minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee and other ministers, had submitted a memorandum seeking a revision in royalty rates, Kumar said pointing out that the government had only reiterated its earlier demand.
An expert committee constituted by the Centre has recommended the pattern on which the royalty rates are to be revised, he said pointing out extraction and transportation of minerals cause extensive damage to the environment in mining areas. The capacity of the state government to meet these costs would be strengthened if the royalty rates were revised without any further delay, he said.
Answering questions, he said the demand for revision of royalty on major minerals had been made by the previous H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-BJP coalition regime and there was no need to read any special meaning. ``Many of the present ministers were part of the previous government too,’’ he said.
Kumar sought to downplay questions regarding the spurt of dissidence in the ruling party and the reported demands by Reddy brothers seeking the axing of a few ministers and said the chief minister was bound to accept such demand.
The state BJP president D V Sadananda Gowda had written to all ministers and party leaders expressing concern over the recent media reports regarding dissensions in the Cabinet and appealed to all to express their views at party forums. The media reports on differences of opinions among the ministers adversely affected the image of the government as well as the party, Kumar said.
Both Janardhana Reddy and Karunakar Reddy did not turn up to the conference of divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and CEOs of zilla panchayats on Tuesday and also the recent Vikas Sankalp Utsav to mark the BJP government’s first anniversary. The youngest brother of the Reddys, G Somashekara Reddy, who is BJP MLA from Bellary city, had also publicly aired his grievances against the chief minister.
However, Kumar said the situation in the state did not warrant party high command’s intervention.``There is no need for senior leader Arun Jaitley to visit the city,’’ he said making it clear that Jaitely will not be coming.
Kumar pointed out that Karnataka would need Rs 36,000 crore investment for improving Bangalore’s infrastructure facilities to suit its status as a growing metropolis over the next six years and the state government was not in a positon to raise the necessary funds.
There was an estimated gap of about Rs 16,000 crore, which need to be mobilised within the next 2-3 years. The Government has urged the centre to release a special grant of Rs 8,000 crore to meet 50 per cent of the estimated resource gap for the development of infrastructure in Bangalore, he said.
The chief minister, in his memorandum submitted to Mukherjee, had demanded reimbursement of Rs 1800 crore borne by the State government for providing debt relief to the farmers in 2007-08. The centre announced the debt waiver scheme for farmers in 2008-09 and the farmers who had borrowed loans from the cooperative societies received benefit to the tune of Rs 500 crore, Kumar said.
The Government sought immediate release of Rs. 500 crore from the centre on ad hoc basis to take up works in 84 taluks of Karnataka affected by drought in 2008. Though the State had submitted a memorandum seeking central assistance of Rs 2019.55 crore, only Rs 90 crore had been released, he said.
The government was hopeful that the centre would clear pending projects of the State which would help to infrastructure projects. Works on several railway projects have been waiting for the environmental clearance of the Centre. Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh agreed to clear all hurdles for expediting implementation of railway and road projects of the State.