By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 31, 2015 : Foreign liquor, fashionable and expensive products will become costlier in Odisha.

The Odisha Cabinet chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday decided to increase 10 % VAT on foreign liquor to 35% from the current 25% to generate additional revenue around Rs 140 crore.

The cabinet has approved 14 proposals which included setting up of a separate Steel Directorate to address the problems faced by steel industries and frame policy initiatives for utilisation of the untapped potential in the sector.

“Though we have a separate directorate of mines and a directorate of geology, we do not have a separate establishment to deal with matters relating to steel industries. Now, the cabinet has approved a proposal for creating a separate directorate of steel,” chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi told reporters.

The new directorate of steel will be operational from April 1, next year.

Padhi said the directorate will deal with steel industries passing through various problems in the state as well as across the country.

“The state does not have a mechanism to regularly interact with promoters or maintain an updated database on production or to assess the problems faced by the steel industry,” he said adding that an additional secretary in the steel and mines department would now function as the director of steel.

The government has successfully attracted large investments in the steel sector by executing 49 MoUs with steel companies.

Of these, 33 projects have already started partial production. Besides, 30 iron ore based industries have been set up through the non-MoU route.

Padhi said a good number of sponge iron, pellet, iron ore benefaction and steel plants are operational in the state.

The Directorate of Steel would appoint a senior and experienced expert from the steel sector as advisor on steel and would engage consultants to further boost the state’s steel industry. The state cabinet also approved a proposal to amend the Long Term Ore Linkage Policy (LTL) to address the difficulties of industries in getting raw material. The cabinet approved an amendment in penalty provision of the Sale Agreement of notification dated September 17, 2014.
The Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) which was allowed to execute sale agreement with long term buyers of ore should not be inconsistent to the provision of the notification.

Earlier, the notification had a provision to impose penalty on not lifting the agreed amount of ore.

The industries would now pay 5 percent penalty on unlifted ore to OMC. The decision would help improve the ease of doing business for the buyers of iron ore and chrome ore under LTL

There is a proposal to increasing Value Added Tax (VAT) to 14.5% from existing 13.5% on fashionable and expensive products.

However, the Cabinet also approved exemption of VAT on input materials for Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and cleared proposal for simplification of long-term linkage policy of the mines besides approval of other proposals from various departments.

It also approved the proposal of Health and Family Welfare department on relaxation of rules for recruitment of AYUSH assistants. They have set 30% weightage on career marks and the rest 70% on written test.

There is also an approval to amendment to Odisha Administrative Service Rule.

The chief minister has asked the concerned department to look into the matter, there has been no final decision taken on the proposal by the Skill Development and Technical Education Department for amendment of the Odisha Professional Education (OPE) Act thereby empowering the State Government to decide on the method of admission in the Engineering colleges, said Aditya Padhi, Chief Secretary of Odisha.