2024-08-16 17:20:02
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a big decision on mining royalty. The Supreme Court allowed the states to recover the past dues of royalty on mineral-rich land from the central government and mining companies after April 1, 2005. Government and private sector mining companies owe Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This decision of the court will benefit the mineral-rich states. The court said that the Center and mining companies can pay the dues to the states in a phased manner in the next 12 years. However, the court has directed the mineral-rich states not to impose any penalty on the payment of royalty dues. This decision will benefit states like Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Government and private sector mining companies owe the states Rs 1.5 lakh crore. According to official estimates, government companies owe Rs 70,000-80,000 crore. Government steel company SAIL owes Rs 3,000 crore. Tata Steel owes Rs 17,347 crore to the states. NMDC Chairman Amitabh Mukherjee said that this decision will have a huge impact on the mining industry. This decision of the court will put more burden on the government company Coal India. Its problems are increasing due to increased competition and decreasing margins. This will have a negative impact on the modernization and expansion of the company.
Odisha number one
Odisha’s share in the country’s total mineral production is about 44%. Along with this, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Rajasthan are also far ahead in mineral production. Two types of minerals are found in India. These include metallic and non-metallic minerals. Metallic minerals are those from which metals like gold, silver, copper, zinc and aluminum are extracted. Non-metallic minerals include sand, gypsum, uranium etc. Odisha is called the Mineral State of India. All types of minerals are found in abundance in the state. These include iron ore, manganese, chromite, bauxite and limestone. Along with this, Odisha also has a large reserve of coal.
Permission to recover royalty arrears on minerals from April 2005, Supreme Court has given states a hard time
what is royalty
Companies have to pay a fixed amount for the mineral extracted in proportion to the quantity of the mineral. Such payment is called royalty. Royalty is calculated on the basis of the quantity of minerals extracted or removed. According to the data of the Central Government, Odisha had the highest royalty dues of Rs 1798369.46 lakh from minerals in the year 2021-22. In 2020-21, this figure was Rs 703461.83 lakh. Similarly, Chhattisgarh had Rs 883872.12 lakh, Rajasthan Rs 367596.65 lakh, Jharkhand Rs 279140.34 lakh and Andhra Pradesh Rs 41402.136 lakh as royalty of minerals in 2021-22.
How much is UP’s dues
Karnataka owed Rs 254214 lakh, Maharashtra Rs 30453.66 lakh, Gujarat Rs 25165.11 lakh, Telangana Rs 22473.79 lakh, Tamil Nadu Rs 17936.39 lakh and Goa Rs 9755.24 lakh as royalty dues. Uttar Pradesh owed Rs 2452.32 lakh. It is ironic that Jharkhand has the largest coal reserves in the country but it is among the bottom five states in terms of electricity availability.