17 applicants for coal mining licences: Conrad K Sangma

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday informed the State Assembly that presently there are 17 applicants who have submitted their applications for grant of prospecting licence for coal.

"All have received approval of the Central Government and they are now in the exploration stage for generating Geological Report before obtaining mining leases," the Chief Minister informed the House during the Question Hour of the Budget Session.

Sangma also told the House that in order to raise the State's own tax revenue through scientific mining, the State Government, after the Supreme Court's order and judgment dated July 3, 2019 allowing coal mining in the State in compliance of the MMDR Act, 1957 and Chapter-V of Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 has notified Standard Operating Procedure for grant of prospecting licence/or mining lease in the State dated March 5, 2021, along with office memorandum for applying to the Director of Mineral Resources to undertake prospecting operation for coal under the provisions of Second Proviso to Sub-Section (1) of Section 4 of the MMDR Act, 1957.

He also informed the House that in terms of royalty that is collected there are four parts to it – the first part is the royalty which is Rs 675 per metric ton (MT), cess of Rs 300 per MT, there is the District Mineral Fund which is 10 per cent of the royalty and there is National Mineral Exploration Trust and that is two per cent of the royalty.

"The revenue of the State is from royalty which is Rs 675 per MT, cess of Rs 300 per MT which comes to Rs 975 multiplied by the number of metric tons that will be extracted and sold, it will depend on that," the Chief Minister said.

Sangma also hoped that it would get maximum revenue in the days to come since people have suffered, the State Government has suffered in terms of revenue and in terms of livelihood.

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