The Orissa Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, has sought 50 per cent share in “super normal profit” earned by private mine owners and said he would raise the issue of imposition of a mineral resource tax on iron ore during the National Development Council (NDC) meeting on Saturday.

“Mining companies are making super normal profits in Orissa. People of Orissa deserve 50 per cent of this...a quarter of our population is of tribals and we will put this profit to developing our areas,” Mr Patnaik said.

He said this was essential as most of the mining companies were operating on tribal land without doing justice to the people. Despite the State being the owner of the resources, the mine owners are benefiting beyond any measure of reasonable returns, he said.

“I have already written to the Prime Minister about it. I will be speaking about it in the NDC meeting. Rent-resource tax from the mining companies should be levied on Australia's pattern,” he said.

In a July 30 letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Patnaik said, “The insatiable demand for iron ore in the export market has resulted in iron ore becoming highly profitable commodity, with returns from mining being far in excess of economically acceptable rates.”

The letter mentioned that the super-normal profits being made are evident from the audited operational profits of 80 per cent by miners, which is unheard of in other industries.

The Chief Minister had sought imposing a 50 per cent mineral resource tax, taking cue from Australia which has decided to levy higher taxes on iron ore from July 2012.

The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, the apex body of Indian mineral industries, has opposed any proposal to hike tax and has written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking rejection of such demands.

Earlier, Mr Patnaik had also raised the demand for hiking royalty rates on iron ore from the existing 10 per cent. Orissa has more than 35 per cent of the country's iron-ore reserves at about 5,231 million tonnes.

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