By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Government has brought a change in collection of stamp duties from mines lease holders. Revenue and Disaster Management Department has issued a notification regarding this and the Department has also written to IG (Registration) and Districts Collectors about the changes, sources in Odisha Government said on Sunday.
Instead of security deposits, which were earlier implemented, some changes have been initiated, now performance security will be considered as Stamp duty, sources added. Government has imposed 4th times high stamp duty on miners considering 50 years of lease. In that case, stamp duty on mines lease, registration fee of total performance security amount, annual serpent rate and annual royalty will be calculated with 4th times high.
Meanwhile, in view of the outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown, mines owners have sought respite from mandatory Capex (capital expenditure) commitments mandated in the new regulations.Though the successful bidders have got Letters of Intent (LoI), they are awaiting the grant of formal vesting orders from the State government to extract minerals.
RK Sharma, secretary general, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries said illumination, heavy earth moving safety requirements as per MMR (Metalliferous Mines Regulations) 2019 are required under new rule. Many changes were taken place in DGMS (Directorate General of Mines Safety), IBM (Indian Bureau of Mines), where Capex will become mandatory in the mines.
Fimi has submitted a memorandum with Union Finance Ministry for waiver of Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST) or reducing it to five per cent on imports made under Export Promotion schemes. Being a highly capital intensive industry, mining requires import of specialised heavy machinery. However, with the advent of GST, imports of IGST are taxed in the range of 18-28 per cent.
The mineral lobby body has also advocated rationalisation of GST on royalty. Presently, 18 per cent GST is levied on the royalty amount while five per cent is charged on sale of minerals. Fimi has suggested that GST on royalty needs to be scaled down to five per cent to bring it at par with the rate on sale of minerals. The uniformity in tax rates would help raise operational productivity and ensure environmental sustainability through efficient machinery procurement.
With Union Coal Ministry is all set to start auction for commercial coal blocks, all eyes on Odisha , as is the second most Coal bearing State in the Country. Odisha has 79,295 Million Ton of coal deposit and it has huge proven resources so far coal is concerned.
The state have been able to only one coal block-Jamkhani, which has gone to Vedanta Limited during recent auction process, when the Ministry of Coal has initiated the process of auction of 27 Coal Blocks in the Country. In fact Odisha has been propelling coal production in a big way and during last five years, the State has hiked it coal production by 23 Percent, while National Coal Production increased by 24 Percent.
Out of the 27 Coal Blocks, 21 have been reserved for auction to all Non Regulated Sectors, such as Steel, Cement and Six Coking Coal Mines for iron ore and steel. In case of allotment, five coal mines are for power sector, nine for sale of coal and one for iron and steel. While all India coal production was 730.54 Million Ton during 2018-19 with a positive growth of 7.9 Percent, more production is targeted with a view to meet the growing requirement of the country.
