NEW DELHI, Feb 20 - In what could bring much awaited succour to the fund-starved Sonowal Government, the Centre is likely to release an additional Rs 6,000 crore as part of the crude oil royalty due to Assam.
Talking to this newspaper, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal indicated that the discussion with the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry was in the final stage and a formal announcement may come soon.
The Chief Minister accompanied by State Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia, State Finance Commissioner Ravi Kota and other senior officials called on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at his North Block office. Sonowal said the discussion was mainly related to the State budgetary allocations and the funds proposed to be released to the State.
The Chief Minister and his officials also held a series of meetings with top officials of the Union Home Ministry and Consumer Affairs and Food and Civil Supplies Ministry before meeting the Union Finance Minister.
Later, referring to the issue of crude oil royalty, the Chief Minister said that if the Centre clears the payment of Rs 6,000 crore, the total outstanding amount would be cleared. He said that he has been pursuing the issue with the Centre for long and had even taken up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ultimately, it was because of the Prime Minister�s intervention that the matter pending since the previous Congress government could be settled, he added.
Sonowal blamed the Tarun Gogoi government for the mess, stating that had the Assam Government challenged the matter before the Supreme Court taking a cue from the Gujarat Government, the payment would not have been kept pending.
As reported, the Centre had last August facilitated the release of crude oil royalty at pre-discounted price with the Oil India Limited (OIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) releasing Rs 1,449.88 crore to Sonowal here. The amount paid by OIL is Rs 1,149.24 crore, while ONGC paid Rs 300.64 crore.
The payment of differential royalty by OIL and ONGC had been entitled to crude oil royalty at pre-discounted price similar to Gujarat with effect from February 1, 2014.
Meanwhile, Assam�s share in the hiked budgetary allocation is Rs 980 crore. The Modi Government has proposed a steep hike in allocation to the northeastern states aggregating Rs 43,244 crore as against Rs 32,180 crore sanctioned last fiscal (2016-2017). The general allocation for the northeastern states has been increased by Rs 11,064 crore.
Sonowal said that because of tough actions taken by the State Government against corruption, the revenue collection has gone up by 42 per cent. �Revenue generation in coming years will increase manifold,� he said, adding that contrary to reports, demonetisation did not have any impact on revenue collection in Assam.
�In fact, demonetisation had a good impact because of crackdown against corruption and good governance,� he said, adding, during the period from April 1 to January 31, the State has managed to collect Rs 12,000 crore. Revenue collection by the Transport, Excise and Sales Tax departments has also significantly gone up, added the State Chief Secretary.
