INDIA-Centre disagrees with Odisha’s proposal to levy mining profits

The
Central government disagrees with the proposal of Odisha to impose mineral
recourse rent tax on the ‘super’ profits of the miners, according to a highly
placed source in the finance ministry. Odisha government has been demanding to
impose this kind of taxes on the profits of the miners in line of the similar
taxation by the Australia government.

Few
months back the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik had written a letter to the
union mines minister Mr Dinsha patel to impose 50 % tax on the high profit of
the miners after the exponential rise of mineral commodities in the international
market.

A
highly placed official at the finance ministry said to this correspondent that,
even if the central government imposes this tax, it is not necessary that
mineral bearing states like Odisha will get additional funds from the centre.
Citing constitutional provisions, he said that all mineral revenues has to be
equally distributed among all the states may it be mineral bearing or not.

It
may be noted that, the Australian government has introduced the mineral
resources rent tax from 1^st July 2012. The
tax, levied on 30% of the “super profits” from the mining of iron ore
and coal in the country and Australian government is expected to earn
billions of Dollars as revenue.