By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: Successful Bidders of Odisha’s 21 Mining Blocks that were auctioned, will face tough time for delaying the production. Union Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi said that the results of Mining reform have been encouraging and with this ordinance in place, recently Odisha has completed the successful auction of large number of iron ore mines. However, some of the successful bidders are trying to evade the process of auctions by delaying the production.
He added that such cases will be dealt seriously and in coordination with the State government, the Ministry is contemplating to bring stringent provisions in the act so that non serious players are terminated and barred from future auctions. The Government is fully committed to ensure that the auction of mineral resources of the country is a complete success and it generates revenue and employment for the state governments. Only Sajjan Jindal owned JSW Steel and Laxmi Mittal’s AMNS have started operations but many keeping silent.
Sources said, successful bidders like Tarama Apartment, Vishal LPG and Foment and few more are not a mood to start operation in their winning blocks under Joda-Koira circles of Odisha’s Keonjhar and Sundargarh and even State Government not issued vesting order in favour of these successful bidders as they have not paid the required taxes and duties while Serajuddin and Co also not start production in its retained block.
It may be noted here that Kolkata based Tarama Apartment Pvt Ltd, a Group Company of Gurukul Homes Pvt Ltd had Bagged the Teherai Iron Ore Block by committing to pay 93.06 per cent of the average sale price to the Odisha government, which has a reserve of 8.90 MT of iron ore and 0.055 MT manganese but nothing has happened yet.
Another Vishal LPG Fuels Pvt Ltd which had bagged Nadidih iron ore and manganese mine in Sundargarh by committing to pay 142.35 per cent of the average sale price to the Odisha government, also not started operation and not yet recived the vesting order. The lease of the composite block with an estimated reserve of 15.06 MT iron ore and 0.059 MT manganese was with Feegrade and Co Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Rungta Mines Limited Group.
Goa based Fomento had bagged Nadidih Iron Ore & Manganese Block at a premium of 141.25 held by Rungta Mines Ltd Group , covering an area of 121.405 ha, in Odisha’s Sundargarh. One of the oldest mine in the Koira mining sector, it has been in operation since January 1961. Serajuddin and Co which had retained Balda mines in Keonjhar district committing to pay 118.05% of its sale value of ore to the Odisha government, also not started its operations.
Pralhad Joshi said that the Government is coming up with many structural reforms in the mining sector to realise its true potential. Joshi was addressing the 15th edition of Global Mining Summit and International Mining & Machinery Exhibition on Wednesday. Joshi said that the mining industry is a core to India’s growth ambition of USD 5 trillion. India is endowed with vast natural resources and the industry has contributed in many ways to the country’s economy like direct contribution to the GDP, indirect contribution through development of downstream industries and employment.
He said that in view of mining sector’s interlinkages with industrial development, the government has also shifted its priorities in terms of availability of raw material, managing the country’s economy and natural resources. It is government’s priority to ensure that the regulatory environment is conducive to ease of doing business with simpler, transparent and time-bound procedures for doing business.
Elaborating upon the recent mining and coal sector reforms undertaken by the government, Shri Joshi said that apart from generating jobs, reducing dependence on fuel import and stimulating the economic growth, the opening of the coal sector to private players will garner hefty capital investment in the country over next 5-7 years.
FDI caps in the mining and exploration of metal and non-metal ores have been increased to 100% under the automatic route. The Geological Survey of India has almost doubled its exploration activity by implementing about 400 mineral exploration projects on various mineral commodities.
“The proposed structural changes in the mining sector aim to increase participation of the private sector in mineral exploration, redefine the norms of exploration for auction of mineral blocks to ensure a seamless transition from exploration to production. They will also redefine the standard of exploration required for auctioning of blocks for prospecting license-cum mining lease and open acreage licensing policy for allocation of mining rights which will give a major boost to the production of minerals in the country”, Joshi said.
Highlighting the proactive reform approach of the Government, Joshi said that March, 2020 was a significant period during which leases of large number of working mines expired and they had to be auctioned immediately. The Government took a proactive and biggest industry-friendly step of transferring all statutory clearances to the new lessees by promulgating an ordinance. This was a major step to ensure seamless production of raw materials.
