GUWAHATI:Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has sought the Prime Minister’s intervention on the matter of under payment of oil royalty by state-run firms ONGC and OIL to Assam.
The issue was raised by Gogoi during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday, an official release here said.
Gogoi said that under payment of royalty to the state is still continuing and has, in fact, increased and suggested that royalty on crude oil be made effective at 20 per cent by modifying the present royalty calculation formula.The issue of loss of revenue has also figured in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report for Assam, which estimated the loss at Rs 525 crore over a period of 11 months during 2008-2009.Gogoi pointed out that withdrawal of the provision of protection of state royalty by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in May 2008 has caused loss of royalty due to discounted price.Due to supply of crude oil on the discounted price by Oil India Ltd and ONGC to the three IOCL refineries — Guwahati Refinery, Digboi Refinery and Bongaigaon Refinery — the state has suffered huge loss of tax revenue, he said.
The Chief Minister told Singh that a part of the under- recoveries of the central oil marketing PSUs are indirectly being recovered from the tax revenue of the state. (PTI)
