Commercial tax office of Barbil range has sent notice to nine mine owners for non-payment of VAT dues linked to mineral raising contractors’ fees.

The defaulted miners include big names like K J S Ahluwalia, Sirajuddin and Indrani Patnaik.

As per sub-section 1 of section 54 of Odisha Value Added Tax (Ovat) Act, any person responsible for making payment to any contractor for carrying out any work contract, which involves transfer of property in goods between the contractor and contractee, will at the time of payment deduct an amount towards tax equal to 4 per cent of total amount, in case the value of works contract exceeds Rs 50,000.

The tax office found at least nine miners, who have not paid any dues since April 2011.

“It appears that you have been carrying out works through contractors and making payments to them. But you, being the deducting authority have not been deducting any TDS from the bills of contractors. You are required to produce all documents relating to works contract from April 2011 to till date,” said a notice sent to the miners from commercial tax office of Barbil range.

Many miners engage contractors to raise minerals, primarily iron ore, manganese and chrome. The contractors charge somewhere between Rs 80 and Rs 100 for each tonne of iron ore extracted. Odisha produces around 60 million tonne iron ore every year.

Most of the miners contacted by Business Standard said they were unaware of the notice, and showed ignorance of such provision of Odisha VAT Rule. The other companies who have been sent the notice for payment of the dues include Kalinga Mining Corporation, M G Mohanty, S N Mohanty, Penguine Trading and National Enterprise.

Considering the output of KJS Ahluwalia, which produces about 10 million tonne iron ore per year, it owes the state government about Rs 100 crore towards taxes on payments made to raising contractors, said a mining expert of the state.