Mining activity has resumed in Karnataka only from November 2012, after an entire year’s lull. Despite this, the earning from this sector for the State treasury has been a whopping `2,459 crore.
The money has been accrued in the form of royalty, Forest Development Tax and commercial taxes through the e-auction of over 4 crore metric tonnes of stocked iron ore. These include already extracted iron ore as well as fresh extractions in Category A mines over the last six months from Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts.
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In 2011, the Supreme Court ordered that mining activities in the ore-rich districts be suspended.
The Department of Mines and Geology was directed to sell the iron ore extracted by the mining firms through e-auction to ensure that steel factories are not affected.
“Revenues for the government has naturally increased a great deal because all the sale is legal. It is also more intelligent to do limited mining as per the Supreme Court’s framework guidelines as it will keep the resources needed for the next few generations also,” Bellary Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas said.
As per the data accessed from the Department of Mines and Geology (DMG), 4,55,44,000 MT iron ore, out of 7,72,68,000 MT iron ore kept for e-auction has been sold as on May 18. The revenue from the sale was `10,496 crore.
Of the total sale amount, the DMG gets `979.26 crore as royalty, Forest Department gets `978.26 crore as Forest Development Tax while `501.52 crore goes to Commercial Taxes Department in the form of Sales Tax. Also, `3,17,24,000 MT iron ore remains in stock yards of the mining firms in the three districts.
After the Supreme Court lifted the ban on Category A mines, a total of 12 mining firms resumed mining operations in November 2012.
One firm, Mineral Enterprises Ltd in Chitradurga, stopped extraction of ore as its lease expired on October 2012.
In the last six months, a total of 12,88,000 MT iron ore, extracted by the Category A mines, was sold through e-auction.
Of the operating Category A mines, 1,80,000 MT iron ore was mined by SMIORE (ML 2580), 4,04,000 MT by B Kumara Gouda and 1,52,000 MT ore was mined by VESCO.