Shillong: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma informed that 17 applicants have submitted applications for a grant of coal licensing.
All 17 applicants have received approval from the Central Government and are now in the exploration stage for generating the geological report before obtaining mining leases, Sangma said in response to a question raised by Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem on Wednesday during the Budget Session.
To raise the state’s tax revenue through scientific coal mining, the state government, after the Supreme Court’s order and judgement of July 3, 2019, to allow coal mining in the state in compliance with the MMDR Act 1957 and chapter 5 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, notified Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for granting prospecting licence/mining lease for sustainable and scientific coal mining in the state dated March 5, 2021.
Syiem stated that coal is one of Meghalaya’s major industrial sectors. He added that the state has suffered in the past few years, but was happy to see progress in scientific mining.
“(I) would like to know what is the expected revenue that the state will collect after scientific mining is operational?” asked Syiem.
Sangma said it wasn’t possible to give a specific number, because it all depends on how many licences are issued and how much extraction will take place. Even an estimate would be arbitrary, Sangma added.
He did, however, inform the House of the royalty or revenue collected by the government. There are four parts: royalty is Rs 675 per metric tonne (MT), cess is Rs 300 per MT, district mineral fund, which is 10% of the royalty, and a National Mineral Exploration Trust, which is 2% of the royalty.
“We hope to get maximum revenue in the days to come. We understand that the people and govt have suffered in terms of revenue and livelihood. It has affected a lot of people. Hope that with these steps, we will be able to give mining lease to some of these individuals and hope scientific mining will start shortly, and revenue will come in,” stated Sangma.
“We expect (that) this year…a few of these owners will get approval for the mining plan and should be able to start the mining activity very soon,” added Sangma.
He added that they may face delay in the first few cases, but the government is hopeful to see more applications come in and more scientific mining, which will add to state revenue.
According to the state government, when preparing the SOPs, multiple awareness programs were held in districts where coal mining takes place. Mine owners were called for a training program and explained about this process.