Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has demanded to increase the royalty rate of coal. Officials gave this information on Friday. State Public Relations Department officials said here that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel presented his stand on various topics related to the interests of Chhattisgarh in an online meeting held with Union Coal and Mines Minister Prahlad Joshi at his residence office on Friday.
Officials said that the Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to make available Rs 4169.86 crore of additional levy (duty) on Chhattisgarh’s share of coal blocks to Chhattisgarh at the earliest and increase the coal royalty rates. The Chief Minister said during the meeting that the royalty rates of coal have not been revised after the year 2014, due to which the state is losing revenue.
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Urging the Union Minister to increase the rate of royalty from 14 percent to 16 percent, he said that the base selling price should be declared by Coal India every three months. He said that the Central Government needs to look at the subject related to royalty in a holistic manner, coal producing states are suffering.
The Chief Minister said that being a producer state, Chhattisgarh would not get GST compensation from June 2022, before that, Chhattisgarh would suffer a loss of about five thousand crore rupees and this loss would increase further in the coming years.
The Chief Minister said that he has also raised this matter with the Union Finance Minister, on which the Chief Ministers of Himachal and other states have also agreed. The Chief Minister said that when the prices of petrol and diesel are increasing every day, then why can’t the royalty of coal increase. He said that Chhattisgarh has industries along with mines, but Chhattisgarh is neither benefiting from mines nor industries. Baghel said that our forests and land go to mines and in return only pollution increases, so this policy is proving to be discouraging industrialization.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister kept the issues related to various coal mines of Chhattisgarh before the Union Minister and urged for their early disposal. He said that Gidhamuri-Paturia coal block and Madanpur South coal block, being under Lemru Elephant Reserve, these blocks would not be considered for auction and quarrying.
He also urged to reserve the iron ore block of Kabirdham for Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation. Union Minister Joshi has assured sympathetic consideration of the issues raised by the state government, officials said. (agency)