Bhubaneswar: Feb 24: Odisha Government has withdrawn the incentive in the form of interest free loans to Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s Pradeep Refinery Project, Odisha finance minister Pradeep Kumar Amat informed the Odisha Assembly. Finance minister Pradip Amat said, “If the state government provides this exemption, it will incur a loss of Rs 22,745 crore, which would be much higher than the loss of Rs 4,412 crore that was projected when the MoU was signed between state government and IOCL in 2004’. It is to be noted here, the state government has signed a MoU with IOCL in Feb’2004 and it was agreed by state government to extend fiscal incentive in the shape of interest free loan equivalent to Sales Tax on the finishing products of the refinery for 11 years from the date of commissioning of the Plant. Justifying the reason for withdrawal, Minister Amat said, ‘As per the MoU, the project must have been completed by 2009-10, but it got delayed for six years. Also, IOCL has enhanced its production capacity from nine million tonnes to 15 million tonnes unilaterally. Giving further explanation, Amat said, IOCL has already got exemptions in various forms and also, the state government needs money to carry out various developmental programmes’.
