In a move that would bring some solace to the beleaguered managements of the State’s iron and chrome ore-based plants which are battling shortage of ores for quite some time now, the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) Chairman Saswat Mishra on Friday disclosed that a policy is on the anvil to provide long-term linkage of iron and chrome ores to the industries in the State.
He stated this at the inaugural session of a Minerals and Metals Conclave organised by the Odisha Chapter of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here. He said a Cabinet Committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary is examining the issue. Debunking the charge of neglect of the industries by the OMC, Mishra pointed out that 80 per cent of the iron ore and 90 per cent of the chrome ore produced by the State-owned undertaking is sold to industries in the State.
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance UN Behera suggested that the industrial houses consider establishing minerals-based industries in the State during recessions so that the industry can enter into production in the following boom phase and take advantage of a booming market. Behera said the available revenue figures suggest that the ore prices are coming down as the advalorem taxes collected by the State has registered a decline of 11 per cent year by year as on January 2014. He also pointed out that the State’s minerals map overlaps the forest and tribal area maps and that precluded any possibility of the current shortages of different ores.
Tata Sponge Managing Director DV Deshpande recounted his experience to underline the difficulties created by the maze of policies whose complexities of interpretation does not allow even law abiding entrepreneurs to carry out operations. ICC Odisha Chairman Vishal Agarwal set the agenda for the conclave, pointing out that the issues of iron ore lease to industries which have invested in the State, provision of iron ore trill that time on cost plus basis, long-term linkage of iron ore, ensuring the sale of at least 50 per cent of production of iron ore at fair price with in the State as per the policy, e-auction as the preferred policy and stoppage of differential pricing of coal for Independent Power Plants and Captive Power Plants.
Visa Steel Executive Director Ranjan Mishra gave a vote of thanks.In the business sessions on steel, the discussion hovered on export duties on pellets. While pellet producers wanted reduction of taxes, the steel manufacturers demanded an increase in the duties so that more of the pellets are available for domestic industries. There was a suggestion of opening a commodities exchange in eastern India to manage mineral trade.
In the session on bauxite, OMC Chairman Mishra made it clear that the chances of opening up large-scale bauxite mining in the State at an early date are remote. The lack of clarity in policies that were hobbling the growth of the Aluminium Park at Angul was also discussed.