Economy / Assam

GUWAHATI, Feb 5 ? The Central Government is collecting around Rs 850 crore annually from the oil fields of Assam as Oil Development Cess, at the rate of Rs 1,800 per MT. But instead of investing funds from this cess for exploration and higher level of production in the State, the Central Government is diverting the funds to the Consolidated Fund of India. This is one of the submissions made by the State Government in its memorandum to the Twelfth Finance Commission.

The memorandum alleged that the amount of fund so diverted since 1974 would amount to thousands of crores of rupees. Oil...

NEW DELHI, Feb 5 ? The fate of the mega gas cracker project appears to be sealed, with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas confirming that the Assam Government has been asked to look for alternative projects. This was conveyed by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Sumitra Mahajan, in a written reply to Paban Singh Ghatowar in the Lok Sabha here today.

?Since a considerable amount of subsidy is involved in making the project viable, it has been suggested that in today?s environment, the State Government may also consider identifying alternative proposals,? the Minister wrote...

DIBRUGARH, Feb 4 ? The All Assam Small Tea Growers? Association (AASTGA) has said that the Centre?s proposal to allow loans upto Rs 2 lakh for small tea growers at 9% pa interest rate for a five year term will not in any way bring any succour to the small tea growers.

?We are not at all enthused by the announcement made by the Finance Minister during his budget speech in Parliament on Tuesday,? said the AASTGA president, Gangadhar Saikia and general secretary, Hemanta Kumar Gohain. They said that one of the reasons for the recession in the tea industry is over-production of tea, especially of...

Dibrugarh, Feb. 4: Assam?s beleaguered tea industry today suggested a two-pronged strategy, based on research and development, to bail out the sick sector. Speaking at its annual general meeting here today, outgoing chairman of the Bharatiya Chah Parishad Krishna Kanta Saharia sought the revival of the Tea Research Association, saying the tea industry in the past had almost ignored research and development.

?During the year that has just gone by, helopeltis (a disease of tea leaves) played havoc in the tea plantations of Upper Assam causing extensive damage and resulting in average yield in...

GUWAHATI, Feb 1 ? The awards of the successive Finance Commissions have not addressed the issue of the widening economic gap between Assam and the rest of the country. Besides, the awards have also ?handsomely added to this growing disparity?, rued the State Government in its memorandum to the Twelfth Finance Commission.

The First Finance Commission awarded transfer of 4.01 per cent of the total Central transfer to the State. The Second Finance Commission transferred 5.15 per cent of the total transfer and after that the percentage of transfer started sliding down gradually. The Seventh...

New Delhi, Jan. 28: The Centre has decided not to divest its stake in the Bokajan factory of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) because it has been consistently posting profits, unlike most other plants of the public sector unit.

This is the second instance of Delhi retaining its share in an Assam-based PSU after hinting at a selloff. The divestment axe was expected to fall on the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers Corporation Ltd in Namrup, too, but the government changed its mind and decided to pump in over Rs 600 crore to revamp it.

Between 1998 and 2003, the CCI unit in Bokajan recorded a...

Silchar, Jan. 20: The Centre has rejected Assam?s plea for Rs 5.35 crore to upgrade the water treatment plant here. In a letter to Doner minister C.P. Thakur recently, Assam urban development minister Hem Prakash Narayan appealed for allotment of the fund from the Centre?s non-lapsable pool of resources.

Narayan said the town with a population of over three lakh has suffered over the past few years because of shortage of potable water. Hence, it was necessary to upgrade the 36-year-old water plant, which has the capacity to treat five million gallons of water every day.

Rejecting the state?s...

DERGAON, Dec 28? The State Government has decided to allot Rs 3 crore to the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) to facilitate development of its gardens. This decision was taken at a meeting of high-level representatives of the government with the ATC and AATSA members at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati recently.

The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Sarat Barkatoky, PWD Minister, formed a six-member committee to review the condition of ATC gardens and the committee will take a final decision on whether to sell off or give the ATC gardens on lease.

This was disclosed by Bhagirath Karan, the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: It is again bad news for Assam with the Central Government drastically slashing down its demand for assistance of Rs 1,134.45 crore to Rs 70 crore for relief and restoration work in the wake of floods this year. In a written reply to a question tabled in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Swami Chinmayanand said that Government of Assam had submitted a memorandum seeking assistance for relief and restoration measures for various sectors, including infrastructure, in the wake of floods this year. The high level committee that met in October to consider the demands...

NEW DELHI, Dec 19 ? Alarmed by the plight of the tea industry, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has endorsed an Opposition-sponsored proposal to convene a high-level meeting involving all players including the State Governments and representatives of the industry to evolve a strategy to resolve the present crisis. A revival package for the industry, more loans for restructuring plantations, Central Government?s assistance and welfare packages for the tea workers are some of the schemes on the anvil to bail out the industry.

The Central Government?s response came after Opposition Members in...