By Our Correspondent in Bhubaneswar, February 23, 2015 :

Faced with resource crunch, Odisha government is mulling over the ways to realize arrears worth a whopping Rs 9220 from different departments.

Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat on Monday said, “We are taking steps to realise arrears expeditiously. Wherever necessary, required fund will be utilised to recover huge arrears. There are large number of cases pending in different courts, including in Supreme Court and High Court. Senior and experienced advocates are being appointed for disposal of cases and ensure arrears are realised,”

In particular, the finance department appears to be concerned over recovery of commercial tax arrears, dues for power consumption and a huge amount of arrear from 24 agencies under the steel and mines department.

Arrears to the tune of Rs 1835.21 crore are pending under steel and mines department. Major defaulters include Mahanadi Coal Limited [MCL] particularly MCL, Samleswari, Sambalpur (Rs 1322.39 crore), Tata Steel, Joda Rs 291.32 crore, and others.

Similarly, Rs 1086.43 crore of Industrial Water rate arrears above Rs one crore is estimated to be collected from 33 agencies as per information available from Water Resources department. The major defaulters include MCL, Talcher Rs 181. 94 crore, Orient Paper Mills Rs 52.92 crore, MCL, Brajarajnagar Rs 50.30 crore, Odisha Power Consortium, Samal Rs 35.80 crore, IDCO, Kalinganagar Rs 34.03 crore etc.

The state’s finances are in dire straits following the closure of mining operation. The government’s strategy is to turn to other revenue earning departments to make up for the shortage in resource mobilization to some extent.

Energy department sources said, electricity duty against 29 agencies above Rs 1 crore adds up to Rs 2203.38 crore. Major defaulters are National Aluminium company Ltd [NALCO], Angul and Damanjodi [Rs 1332.47 crore], Rourkela Steel Plant [Rs 75.02 crore], Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys Ltd Group Choudwar [Rs 49.99 crore] etc.

Forest revenue to the tune of Rs 57.37 crore is also to be realised from two agencies and contractor. The state managed Odisha Forest Development Corporation Limited owes Rs 50 crore among other agencies.

Finance department sources said Rs 3986.16 crore of Commercial tax is assessed to be realised from 57 agencies having dues above Rs 10 crore. Major defaulters include Sarada Mines Pvt Ltd Rs 483.40 crore, SAIL (Rourkela) Rs 473.17 crore, NALCO, Bhubaneswar Rs 288.06 crore, R P Sao Rs 206.88 crore, SESA Sterlite Ltd Rs 202.14 crore, G M Ordnance Factory, Kantabanji Rs 183.95 crore, Adani Enterprises Ltd Rs 155.44 crore etc.

The government has already set up a Dispute Resolution Committee headed by the chief secretary to settle cases against State PSUs.

On the issue of collection of arrears from Central PSUs, the State government has signed agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd [HAL] and steps are being taken to address dispute with SAIL, Amat said.