‘Official-miner nexus cost state crores in revenue’

Bhubaneswar: BJP MP from Bhubaneswar, Aparajita Sarangi, on Monday accused the state machinery of colluding with the private miners in portraying high-grade iron ore as low quality, thereby undervaluing it to avoid various taxes, causing crores of revenue loss to the state exchequer.
Aparajita, who is also the BJP national spokesperson, said the corruption can be gauged from the exponential rise in low quality ore (ore with less than 58% iron content), which attracts no export duty. Exporters pay 30% freight on board value as export duty on good quality ore, in which the iron content is above 58%.
The IAS officer-turned-parliamentarian said compared to 2019-2020, when the mines were not auctioned, the proportion of low-grade ore in a mine has gone up manifold.
Quoting iron export data of the Centre, she said in 2018-2019, Odisha’s share of low-grade iron ore export was 23.4% of country’s exports. However, it increased to 67.3% in 2021-2022. In one mine, the percentage of low-grade jumped to 95% in 2021-2022 compared to 23% in in 2019-2020.
“How can quality of ore in the same mine become so poor in just one year? These were certainly deliberately shown as of poor quality so as not to pay export duty,” Aparajita told a news conference. Lower valuation of ore means less payment towards premium to the state, lower coal royalty to the state, lower contribution to the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund and lower contribution to the National Mineral Exploration Trust, she said. Odisha accounts for 33.61% of country’s iron ore deposits. Odisha steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallik rubbished Aparajita’s allegation as misinterpretation of facts.
“Odisha’s transparency in auction of mines and their running is a model for the country. The Centre this year has given us Rashtriya Khanij Vikas Puraskar first prize carrying a cash award of Rs 3 crore for being the best-performing state which took the initiative in exploration, auction, operationalisation of mines,” Mallik told TOI.
The mines minister said the MP should check Odisha’s mining record with the Union ministry of mines. Odisha has earned Rs 50,000 crore mining revenue this year winning appreciation from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Replying to motion of thanks on then President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to Parliament in Rajya Sabha in February, Modi had cited reforms in coal and mining sectors in Odisha as examples of cooperative federalism. “These reforms are important decisions of cooperative federalism. Odisha has been at the forefront of implementing these reforms. I congratulate the Odisha chief minister…his government worked for all the reforms working shoulder to shoulder with us,” the PM had said.