Bihar Govt submits memo on coal royalty

State Finance Minister Shanker Prasad Tekriwal, Planning Minister Tulsi Singh, besides principal secretary to the Chief Minister, Mukund Prasad and state Finance Commissioner V S Dubey, attended the meeting.

Briefing reporters after over one-and-a-half-hour long meeting, Tekriwal said the state government argued for ad valorem fixation of royalty on coal which could fetch an additional revenue of Rs 750 crore per annum to the state.

He said the state had incurred a heavy loss to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees following delayin fixation of royalty on coal on the basis of price.

Tekriwal said the Finance Minister, was “sympathetic to the state’s demand for Central assistance and assured of “taking appropriate action.”

Tekriwal said the state government in the memorandum laid emphasis on early clearance of the projects worth over Rs 690 crore for agriculture.

“The state has already submitted the project reports in this connection,” he said.

Besides, the Union Finance Minister was impressed upon the need for providing Central assistance to the tune of over Rs 5,000 crore for implementing various irrigation projects including a canal modernisation scheme, the North Bihar Koel project, the Durgawati reservoir project, the Auranga reservoir project, Kadwan dam project and Swarnarekha multi-purpose project, he said. The state government also sought a sum of Rs 6,000 crore from the Centre for implementing Koel Karo project phase-two (Rs 2,400 crore), Tenughat thermal power project phase-two (Rs 2,000 crore) and Muzaffarpurthermal power project phase-two (Rs 1,600 crore) for improving power generation, Tekriwal added.

Regarding the state’s share of Central taxes, the state government in the memorandum asked for release of an additional sum of Rs 900 crore for the period 1996-97 and 1997-98 towards increase in states’ share of Central taxes by three per cent from 26 per cent to 29 per cent.

Tekriwal said the Finance Minister was also impressed upon the need for an additional fund of Rs 223.36 crore towards “formula-based Central assistance” for 1998-99.

Meanwhile, Sinha has ruled out the possibility of imposition of financial emergency in Bihar but severely reprimanded the state government for “continuous non-performance in achieving physical and financial targets due to sloppy execution of development schemes.”

“We do not have any plans to declare a state of financial emergency in Bihar as it would entail great hardships to the people of the state….. Moreover, never such a thing has conference.

He, however,strongly criticised the state government for its failure to properly spend funds made available to it for execution of centrally sponsored schemes and externally aided projects. He expressed displeasure over the state’s inability to furnish audited expenditure accounts to the Centre leading to withholding of Central assistance.

“If situation warrants the Centre will order special audit of the accounts of the state government and withhold future disbursements under Centrally sponsored schemes,” the Finance Minister warned.