Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi and demanded share from the coal cess being collected by Centre from coal bearing states including Orissa.
During his five-day official tour to Delhi, Patnaik met Jaitley and urged him to compensate coal bearing states like Orissa, which are bearing the brunt of negative externalities of coal mining and coal-based power plants from out of Clean Energy Cess.
This year, the Union government has increased the cess on coal from `200 per tonne to `400 per tonne. The money is being collected under the Clean Energy Cess Fund to be utilised for renewable energy based initiatives and power projects.
Reiterating the state’s old demand, Patnaik urged Jaitley to release the compensation for phasing out Central Sales Tax (CST) for the year 2012-13 and onwards, and revision of royalty on coal, which was due for revision in April 2015.
He appealed to the Centre to amend Article 276(2) of the Constitution to enhance upper ceiling of the Professional Tax to `12,000 per annum as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission and release of `566 crore payable by Hindalco to Orissa on account of Talabira-I coal block.
Patnaik also invited the finance minister to attend the ‘Make in Orissa’ conclave as guest of honour. The conclave, which will be held in Bhubaneswar from November 30 to December 2, aims at attracting entrepreneurs and business conglomerates to invest in the state. “The new industrial development plan ‘Vision 2025’ projects an additional investment of `2.5 lakh crore and will generate 10 lakh jobs by 2025,” Patnaik pointed out during the meet.
Jaitley assured the chief minister to look into the issues and indicated his willingness to attend the Plenary Session of the conclave, sources said.
The state has attracted investment commitments of `71,000 crore during the Make in India Week held in last February in Mumbai while it has been able to attract investment proposals worth `90,000 crore during the Bangalore Investors’ Meet in August 2016.
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