Gogoi seeks new oil royalty mechanism

  Chief minister Tarun Gogoi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seeking his intervention to direct the oil PSUs to change the royalty payment mechanism.

Sources told Assam Times that the chief minister urged Modi to ask the petroleum ministry to give appropriate instructions to ONGC and OIL to pay royalty, VAT and other state taxes to Assam.

He further demanded royalty at pre-discounted price of crude oil with effect from February 1 2014 as ordered by Supreme Court in case of Gujarat.

Gogoi has pointed out that ONGC and OIL are liable to pay royalty on crude oil at 20% of the well-head price, in addition to VAT at 5% and other state taxes.