Pradhan assures fair oil royalty

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, June 19: Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan today assured that Assam will be given a fair royalty on oil sold to marketing companies by ONGC and OIL.  Pradhan claimed that due to the "negligence" of the State government and the previous UPA government at the Centre, Assam had been getting less royalty since the past 10-15 years.

"Now, we have initiated the process to ensure that the State is given the right royalty," he said.

The Ministry of Petroleum & tural Gas has been allowing ONGC and OIL to sell crude oil to marketing companies at heavily subsidized price and consequently also to pay royalty to the oil producing states on the basis of such highly subsidized sale price of crude oil. Such subsidy, which is deducted in the me of discount, has at times been as high as 100 per cent or more. This has resulted in cumulative loss of revenue income of more than Rs. 10,000 crore for Assam since 2008-09, State government claims.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the State BJP unit's executive meeting, Pradhan ruled out any change in the State leadership before the assembly elections.

He also said that party president Amit Shah will visit Assam on July 14 to oversee the preparation for the assembly elections.