Goa: Green clearance fee halved for ore beneficiation plants

PANAJI: Based on the state government's advice, the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Goa-SEIAA) has revised and reduced the fee to be paid for environment clearances for operating a mineral beneficiation plant. The fee has been now brought down to half of what was originally planned to be charged or less.
In the beneficiation process, iron ore is separated from the rest of the mined extract. The state government is looking to restart mining activities in the state after they shut down following Supreme Court directives in 2018.

At its meeting in May, the Goa-SEIAA had said that fee for environment clearance for a mineral beneficiation project of up to one lakh tonne will be Rs 5 lakh, which has now be reduced to Rs 3 lakh. An environment clearance for a mineral beneficiation project of one to two lakh tonne was to earlier attract a fee of Rs 10 lakh, which has been halved to Rs 5 lakh.
For more than two lakh tonne, environment clearance for the mineral beneficiation plant would cost Rs 15 lakh, but has been brought down to just Rs 7 lakh.
"The decision was taken in its 79th meeting held on May 30, 2022, and the matter was referred to the government to issue the notification. The government going through the proposal of the revised fee structure found the structure decided by the Authority to be on the higher side. Therefore, the authority decided to revise the fee structure to be levied on the project proponent to issue environmental clearance, etc," said the authority at its meeting held this month.
As per the Goa-SEIAA's recent decision, environment clearance fee for laterite quarries has also been slightly reduced from Rs 40,000 to Rs 35,000. In the case of basalt quarries, however, the amount has been hiked from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000.
Meanwhile, the Goa-SEIAA has also reduced the environment clearance fee to be charged for distilleries projects from between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh depending on the capacity to Rs 3 to Rs 7 lakh now.