GUWAHATI: The Comptroller and Auditor General accused the Oil India Limited (OIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited ( OMGCL) of manipulating production figures to pay less royalty to the state government.
After the CAG report was tabled in the house on Wednesday, a furious chief minister Tarun Gogoi described the evasion of royalty as serious outside the assembly. "I am going to examine this. If it is true, we definitely stake claim," Gogoi said.
According to the CAG findings, both OIL and ONGCL suppressed production of crude oil, condensate and natural gas, which resulted in less payment of royalty and interest of Rs 168.48 crore. The report shows that OIL suppressed production of 2.27 lakh kilo litres of crude oil production from its nine oil fields between April 2004 and March 2009 resulting in less payment of royalty of Rs 72.40 crore. The ONGCL, on its part, suppressed production of 1.35 lakh metric tonnes of crude oil from 14 oil fields during the same period and paid royalty of Rs 46.68 cr. Similarly, OIL also suppressed production of 21,317.92 lakh standard cubic metres of natural gas, which resulted in less realization of royalty (Rs 49.40 crore).
The CAG ahs suggested the state government to consider instituting a system fro cross-checking the returns of the lessees with the primary records of the mining department as well as other records of the lessees such as annual accounts etc. The CAG reports says non-payment of royalty between April 2008 and March, 2009 on deduction discount on well head prices of crude oil distributed to oil marketing companies deprived the state of Rs 525.04 crore revenue (OIL Rs 477.99 crore and ONGCL Rs 47.05 crore).
The report adds that the ONGCL evaded royalty of Rs 119.01 crore, including interest by computing oil price at lower side, during 2004-05 and 2008-09.
Apart from evasion by oil companies, the state government's mining department also failed to claim differential royalty of Rs 10.48 cr payable by central government from Oil Industry Development Board Fund. The department also failed to enforce payment of royalty on natural gas at well head price resulting in short realization of Rs 24.56 crore. The CAG report adds that adoption of incorrect method from determination of royalty payable on natural gas resulted in revenue loss of Rs 11.97 crore.
