Ranchi, Aug. 30: The controversial renewal of Schedule IV land lease to Tata Steel is likely to be executed soon with advocate-general Anil Kumar Sinha preparing to furnish his opinion by the first week of September.

Chief minister Arjun Munda, who recently announced that he would settle the Tata land lease issue before Assembly poll, said he was awaiting the advocate-general’s opinion to expedite the contentious issue.

The land lease issue made news in 2002 when former revenue minister Madhu Singh claimed that Tata Steel owed Rs 5,000 crore to the government to sublet cheap land at a higher rate.

The minister also demanded a CBI probe claiming that the steel major had earned more revenue through the sale of land than selling its product. The Tata Steel land lease lapsed in 1996 during the unified Bihar days and the renewal had been pending since then. The Jharkhand government renewed the lease for Schedule I, II and III after a prolonged court battle, but is yet to take any decision under Schedule IV and V.

Sources said the advocate- general is studying the voluminous documents related to land under Schedule IV that has been further sub-let by the steel major at a higher rate, giving rise to controversy.

The state government had given the land lease to Tata Steel on a nominal fee, but the steel major was accused of sub-letting land on a premium. Having renewed the land lease for Schedule I, II and III, the state government wants the steel major to compensate it for the losses before renewing land under Schedule IV.

Regarding Schedule V (vacant) land, the state government wants the company to tell how it wanted to utilise the land. The state government, which first claimed that the steel major owed Rs 5,000 crore to sub-let Schedule IV land has scaled down its demand to Rs 110 crore.

Tata Steel has been opposing the move on the ground that the calculations were arbitrary. The steel major said if there were violations by the sub-lessee, the compounding fee should be charged directly from them.