The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a report on revenues, tabled in the State Assembly on February 2, has indicated to royalty loss to the exchequer caused due to lower realisation by the mining authorities.
The public fund auditor while examining the records of District Mining Office of Ramgarh found the West Bokaro Colliery of the Tata Steel on the wrong side of the set royalty and tax rates. “The monthly reports submitted by the colliery to the Commercial Tax Department suggest that after deducting all the surcharges and taxes on 220.98 lakh metric tonne of coal the royalty should have been fixed on Rs 5,189.59 crore of the selling price. But royalty got imposed was only Rs 324.64 crore against the actual royalty Rs 602.04 crore,” said the report tabled in the House on Thursday.
The audit was for 2008-09 to 2014-15 period and has blamed the District Mining Office for failing in detecting the under valuation done and also for not imposing actual royalty based on the actual selling price of the coal stock. The CAG report mentioned that the act had in the process caused undue profit to the lessee in the tune of Rs 277.40 crore and Rs 168.81 crore in terms of royalty and interest, respectively.
Following the examination, the concerned mining officer admitted to the lapses and informed the auditors in August, 2016 that demand for realising Rs 446.21 crore had been placed but till October, 2016 there was no update about the recovery.