By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 14, 2017: The union ministry of chemicals and fertilizers has asked Odisha government to waive stamp duty and exempt Goods and Services Tax [GST] to improve Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for the proposed Urea plant project in Talcher.

The Rs 9,000 crore Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL) plant will produce 1.27 million metric ton of urea annually based on coal feedstock and North Arakhapal coal block in Talcher has been allocated to the project.

Union fertilizer secretary Bharathi Sivaswami Sihag in a letter to Odisha chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi has sought waiver of the GST on materials required for the proposed plant.

The Ministry has assigned joint secretary Sushil Kumar Lohani, the Odisha cadre IAS officer, to keep coordination with the state government for early execution of the project in Talcher.

As the fertilizer that will be produced from the plant using coal gasification technology will be expensive, the union government sought cooperation of Odisha government to minimize the cost of fertilizer and providing the fertilizer to the farmers at affordable prices.

The Centre is facilitating the setting up of the new urea plant based on Coal Gasification Technology (CGT).

“The project will generate employment and boost economy in Odisha,” Sihag said in her letter. “The State Government will appreciate that the cost of coal gasification based urea plant is much higher than gas based plant”, it added.