KODIA (SUNDARGARH) | Dec 08, 2016 : FOR three years in a row Koida Mining Circle (KMC) in Sundargarh district continues to see a dip in mining royalty revenue and the current fiscal seems no better. The year 2016-17 is set to witness all-time low in recent years.

If the current trend is any indication the revenue collection in this fiscal may end up recovering half the downward revised target of `1,000 crore.

Mining Department sources informed in the last eight months of the current financial year, the actual revenue realisation is about `263 crore after adjustment of around `156 crore collected earlier as advance revenue. It is learnt that about `40 crore more collected earlier as advance revenue is yet to be adjusted.
A senior mining officer confided that with four months left for the current year to end the actual revenue collection would not go beyond `500 crore which is half of the target.

Incidentally, in 2015-16 the department had a target of `1,050 crore, but ended up collecting about `820 crore, including advance revenue of about `196 crore. The actual collection was about `624 crore. Similarly, in 2014-15 against the downward revised target of `900 crore, the department could actually recover about `710 crore with `69.5 cr recovered as advance revenue from KMC.

Koida-based Deputy Director of Mines (DDM) Salil Behera attributed the reasons to slash in prices of iron ore and claimed the volume of production and dispatches compared to previous years were not affected.
He said the rise in mining revenue of KMC is linked to rise in demands for iron ore and increased consumption by metal-based industries. Two captive mines and 23 non-captive mines of around 70 mines are functional, he added.

Departmental sources said, closure of the SAIL’s Barsuan Iron Mines (BIM) with two million tonnes per anum (MTPA) since May 2014 was one of the key factors for dip in mining revenue of KMC. The dispatch of iron ore from November 26 from the newly-opened mines of SAIL at Taldihi with one MTPA capacity is likely to boost government revenue collection to some extent in future.

(Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/)