By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/BARBIL/KOIRA: If Arjun Saraswat led Sarada Mines Pvt Ltd and DR Patnaik led Patnaik Minerals facing rough weather in Odisha’s Mining zone with State Steel and Mines Department suing them with notices but no action against JSW Steel, Arcellor Mittal Nippon Steel and Sirajuddin and Co for violation of Rule 12A of Mineral Concession Rules 2016 and shortfall in dispatch quantities of iron ore from the auctioned mines in Odisha even after the express approval of the State Government for early recovery.
Sources closing monitoring mining activities in these 6 Iron Ore Blocks under Joda-Koira mining circles of Keonjhar and Sundargarh, said 61% shortfall in supply from mega iron ore mines of Nuagaon, Jajang, Naryanposhi and Ganua iron ore mines of JSW, Thakurnai iron ore mine of Arcelor-Mittal India and Balda iron ore mine of Sirjuddin against the minimum dispatch requirement of 15.18 million tonne. There was shortfall of 9.24 million tonne during July-December incurring huge revenue loss of around Rs 6000 Crore.
The Steel and Mines Departmet has already approved the principle to be adopted for calculation of the penalties on December 22 , 2020, but nothing has happened yet. Sub-rule 1 of Rule 12A of MCR 2016 states compliance of minimum dispatch of 80 per cent of the average of the annual production of two immediately preceding years on pro-rata basis from all auctioned mines. ‘Pro-rata’ system has been introduced to ensure that the monthly dispatch levels are maintained to pre-existing levels and artificial scarcity of iron ore is not created in the market. Due to loss dispatch by the auctioned mines, the State Government has already lost revenue of over Rs 5,500 crore between July and December last year.
For calculating the penalties for a particular month, the average sale price of the highest grade of lumps must be charged as the new lessees are already manipulating the ex-mines prices leading to about 44 % lower average sale price published by IBM compared to prevailing market price.
Few days back, the State Steel and Mines Department had sent a demand notice to SMPL for recovery of Rs 2,056 crore for excess mining. The Joint Directorate located at Joda in Keonjhar district sent the notice to Sarda Mines under Section 21 (5) of MMDR Act, 1957 for excess mining in a month on pro-rata basis without the required environmental clearance. Earlier, it had sent notice to DR Patnaik led Patnaik Minerals for the same while no action against the lease holders of Nuagaon, Jajang, Naryanposhi , Ganua , Thakurnai and Balda iron ore mines.
