Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha law minister and senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra on Monday claimed that the MMDR Amendment Bill introduced by the Centre would be struck down by the Supreme Court during the judicial process.
Addressing a press conference organised by the Congress, Mishra said an appeal challenging the Bill had been filed in the Supreme Court and the apex court had admitted it for consideration.
Mishra said the state government had earlier enacted the Odisha Cess Act during the tenure of former Chief Minister Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, but the legislation was struck down by the Supreme Court as the state did not have the authority to impose such a levy.
“I was the Law Minister when Biju Patnaik was the Chief Minister. At that time, I was asked to draft a Bill on tax on mineral-bearing land. The objective was to enable the state government to levy tax on land containing mineral resources,” Mishra said.
He said the proposed legislation was framed as a tax on mineral-bearing land rather than a levy directly on mineral resources.
“The state government approached the Supreme Court but lost the case. Subsequently, on January 15, 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the state government had rights over the land. We were supposed to get that right, but we did not,” he said.
Mishra claimed that the Supreme Court had subsequently observed that implementation of such a law could generate around Rs 12,000 crore annually for the state.
He also referred to a study conducted by Tata Steel and claimed that around Rs 17,000 crore was due to the state government from Central government undertakings.
Mishra said a recent Supreme Court judgment had made it clear that state governments could levy tax on mineral-bearing land and that the dues would have to be paid from the date on which they became payable.
He said the Centre had requested the Supreme Court to permit payment of the dues in instalments, arguing that payment of the entire amount at one go would put a financial burden on the Union government.
“The Centre was supposed to pay the tax and the state was supposed to demand it. But the state did not demand it, nor did the Centre pay it. As a result, the state government suffered a huge financial loss,” Mishra alleged.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das also criticised former Union minister and senior BJP MP Dharmendra Pradhan at the press conference.
Das questioned how many million tonnes of coal and iron ore had allegedly been illegally extracted and “gone into the pockets of the BJP” over the past 12 years.
He also raised three other questions and challenged Pradhan and the BJP to respond to them.
