Bhubaneswar: The Odisha finance minister, Sashi Bhusan Behera, Thursday urged the Central government to revise the coal royalty as early as possible as it has been delayed by two years.
“The Government of India should revise the royalty on coal immediately without further delay,” Behera said in the pre-budget consultation meeting convened by the union finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi.
Behera said that the royalty on coal was last revised in April 2012. Since royalty should be revied in every three years, the due revision was pending since April 2015.
Odisha finance minister also urged the Centre to change the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) sharing pattern to 90:10 from 75:25. He pointed out that as per recommendations of 14th Finance Commission the sharing pattern of SDRF should be changed from 75:25 to 90:10 once GST is in place.
The state government demanded Credit Guarantee Trust Fund (CGTF) for farm sector borrowers, more number of brick and mortar bank branches in the state for financial inclusion, release the tax devolution to states on 15th of every month instead of the first working day of every month, and exemption of Income Tax on interest income from bank deposits of District Mineral Fund (DMF) .
