Gujarat wants portion of oil cess to fight pollution

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat government will raise the issue of releasing a portion of money collected as oil cess and deposited in the Central government coffers.The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) collects 50 paise per ton from crude oil carriers as oil cess and has deposited nearly Rs 5 crore with the Centre till date. GMB officials said that the money from oil cess will be used for mitigating sea pollution.The issue, which has been raised with the union shipping ministry in the past, is likely to be raised at the next meeting of the Maritime States Development Council (MSDC) scheduled to be held in September.“We deposit about Rs 5 crore per annum with the Central government as the oil pollution cess. We should be getting back some portion of it. Having already spent Rs 50 lakh for maintaining an agency, we require money for combating oil pollution in future also. Where is the money going to come from?” said the official.Gujarat has been at the forefront of states demanding that the oil pollution cess collected by the maritime states and given to the Centre must get a portion of the funds back so that they can take effective steps for tackling oil pollution at their end. The state has been paying sizeable oil cess given the number of crude oil vessels berthing in its waters, especially after the Reliance and Essar refineries became operational.The issue was first raised in the MSDC meeting of 2009 and again at the 12th MSDC meeting held in Chennai by authorities of the Gujarat Maritime Board. Thereafter, reminders have been sent to the union ministry of shipping, road transport and highways. Gujarat has said that it has already spent about Rs 50 lakh for maintaining an oil pollution mitigation agency named M/S Home Engineering.“In the last MSDC meeting, it was informed that the ministry will provide assistance for fighting oil pollution at the major and non-major ports. But there is no word on what will be the details of the scheme since then,” said a senior GMB official. The funds from oil cess pool will help GMB augment pollution combating equipment and technology.