Mangaluru: The Stone Crusher and Quarry Owners Association, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have urged the govt to resolve the issue of retrospective payment as per the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act by charging Rs 5 lakh per hectare.
Association president Manoj Shetty told reporters on Tuesday that various reports and decisions taken by the govt indicate that the main objective is to increase the revenue of the state exchequer. Hence, the association proposes ways to increase the revenue to the state exchequer by enabling the collection of royalty at the endpoint.
According to the CAG reports, 75%-78% of the total royalty is collected at the endpoint. The royalty amount is deducted from contractors of various govt agencies at the time of payment of the bill amount for various works done. Whereas the remaining 22%-25% of the royalty is collected from other sources, he said.
He said there has been no shortage of aggregates anywhere in the state for all these years since 2013. Thus, the resultant position is that the demand for minerals is met by supply through illegal means and materials coming from other states. This is causing hardship for the owners of crushers who are carrying out crushing activities legally. An illegal or interstate supplier can undercut the price of the minerals as he is not burdened with the payment of royalty. This resulted in a panic situation among quarry owners, he said.
Pointing out the advantages of collecting royalty at the endpoint, he said that any material consumed for private and govt works would suffer royalties, thereby increasing the collection to the state exchequer multifolds. A rough estimate points that the total demand in the state at present is about 600 MMT tonnes per annum and royalties for the entire 600 MMT would accrue to the govt. It prevents illegal mining and transportation, and litigations can be avoided, as many cases are filed by various leaseholders challenging the demand notice issued under Rule 39 and 40 of KMMCR, 1994.
The state govt must initiate steps and make proper remedial measures in KMMCR to collect the royalty from the end user (end point). This can triple the revenue, approximately Rs 5,000 crore to the state exchequer.
As per various CAG reports, more than 78% of the aggregates are consumed by govt work execution department and agencies (WEDA). The mines and geology department has made a provision to these govt WEDA to deduct royalty at the time of release of contractor's bills. Because of this provision, the contractors refuse to procure permits from quarry owners, and the department is in turn now forcing quarry owners to pay royalty with penalty for the same material. Many quarry owners have approached the high court regarding the injustice, he alleged.