Odisha may get a windfall revenue of ~25,000 cr from defaulter miners

Odisha may have a revenue bonanza of ~25,000 crore in the current financial year because of the Supreme Court order on illegal mining in the state.

The apex court has asked mining companies to cough up 100 per cent of the value of the ore they had lifted without lawful authority since 2000-2001.

The defaulting companies included some of the big names in the mining business such as Tata Steel, Essel Mining, the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Odisha Mining Corporation, Mesco, Rungta Mines, KJS Ahluwalia, Sirajuddin mines, and Indrani Patnaik, etc.

Following the Shah Commission probe into illegal mining, the state government, in 2013, had issued notices in 146 cases to lease holders, most of them engaged in iron ore and manganese excavation, for recovery of illegally mined ore under Section 21 (5) of the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act. The law mandated the recovery of value if the material is already sold. The total value of recovery claim slapped on miners then was over ~59,000 crore.

However, the SC appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) later conducted a separate probe into unlawful mining activity in the state and said in its report that total 215.5 million tonne of iron ore and manganese had been extracted without or in excess of environment clearance (EC) and pegged its value at ~17,576 crore.

On the wide variance in the estimation of value of illegally mined ore by the state government and CEC, an official said, the state had made the assessment taking into consideration the highest value of ore during period of commitment of offence while CEC has taken the average price of minerals as proposed by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). Similarly, the CEC calculation was only for iron ore and manganese and it did not take into account mineral production without forest clearance and in violation of other norms.

The SC asked mining firms to cough up 100% value of the ore they had lifted without lawful authority since 2000-2001