Rajen-da,
Thanks for your comment. While searching for the OIDB act on the net I found a lot of newspaper reports showing concern over the act. I think somehow people take it for granted that the money collected through CESS can be utilized to balance deficit budgets, which makes me wonder if the act had been amended after it came into existance. However there has been widespread concern about the money being stagnant in the OIDB fund over the ages. I also found a report saying that till 1992 only 902 crore rupees had been released from the OIDB fund under the head of oil exploration and oil industry development. After 1992 there has not been any fund allocation from the OIDB fund.
After I skimmed through the OIDB act 1974, it seems to me that the figures I presented in the earlier email to the group may be a bit exaggerated as the CESS has been being increased from 300 Rs per tonne to 1800 Rs per tonne in gradual steps. In any case the collected CESS is a considerable amount of money.
For the interested people OIDB act 1974 is downloadable from the net, with the help of Google!
Best
Priyankoo
On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 Rajen Barua wrote :
>Priyankoo:
>Thanks for doing this service to the netters.
>
>I had a talk with Mr Gautam Prasad Baruah in Kolkata on the subject last night.
>He really appreciates that we people here are showing interests on the welfare of Assam. He told me that Assamese people living overseas can really do a great service by writing in response to his article to different news papers in Assam which will influence greatly some citizen group to come forward and a public interest litigation be filed against the central government in the interest of Assam on this issue.
>RB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: priyankoo sarma
> To: assam@assamnet.org
> Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 12:34 PM
> Subject: [Assam] The Untold Story of the Exploitation of Black Gold of Assam
>
>
> I thought this article published in Xadin is very important, so I summarized and translated it into English for the readers. Some maths in section 4 are done by me, which is a bit different from the calculations of the author Gautam Prasad Barua.
>
>
> Author: Gautam Prasad Barua
> In 1973, as the oil prices went up throughout the world, the Indian government got a law passed in the parliament known as the OIDB ACT-1973 for the development of the oil industry in the country. The act enabled the central Indian government to impose a CESS or an extra tax for the oil produced in Assam at the rate of 300 Rs. Per tonne, which was later increased to 1800 Rs. Per tonne. From 1974 the Central Govt has been receiving the tax at the above-mentioned rate.
>
> Considering the fact that Assam produces 4.7 million tonne of oil per year now, the central government receives 850 crore rupees as tax from Assam oil presently.
>
> However, according to the OIDB act, the money collected in form of tax from Assam oil should be used only in oil exploration and development of the oil industry only in the north east region. During the initial few years the central government lent some money to the oil companies for development, but as soon as the oil companies achieved a better financial condition they stopped taking this money as loans from the central government.
>
> Since then the central government has been using this money collected from taxing Assam oil to stabilize its deficit budget, which, according to the OIDB act is unlawful. There is no way that the central government can divert this money from the head of 'oil exploration and development in the north east' to its deficit budget.
>
> The author suggests that the central government should:
>
> 1. Stop imposing CESS or extra Taxation on Assam oil immediately so that the Assam government can impose CESS on Assam oil on its own as it does in case of Assam Tea.
>
> 2.If the central government cannot stop imposing CESS, then the tax money collected should be used in the development of infrastructure in the NE region, which is allowed by the OIDB act.
>
> 3.If the Central government says that the money collected from imposing CESS is deposited and saved in the OIDB fund, then the central government should give us the details how much money do they owe Assam in the form of CESS in the last 32 years and how much it has spent in the designated heads allowed by the OIDB act.
>
> 4.If Assam has been producing at least 3.5 million tonnes of oil every year since 1974, then CESS collected from Assam oil in the last 32 years is 201600 million rupees. If the central government has spent a single penny from this amount anywhere except in Assam, it is unconstitutional according to the OIDB act.
>
> As far as we know the central government transferred this money to a consolidiated fund, violating the OIDB act.
>
> 5.The author suggests that a public interest litigation be filed against the central government in the interest of Assam.
>
>
> Dex matho eta dharona, thikonar xex xari...
> The most important thing in life is never to forget who you are...
>
>
> http://plaza.ufl.edu/priyanku
>
>
>
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