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Hyderabad: The Telangana State government is all set to offer one-time settlement (OTS) scheme soon to withdraw cases booked by the vigilance and enforcement department and the vigilance wing of the mines and geology department against those transporting and using minor minerals for construction activity without paying seigniorage fees to the government.
Over 500 cases were booked in Telangana in the undivided state by levying a penalty of nearly Rs 450 crore. The TS government’s OTS will enable violators to pay a nominal fee for withdrawal of cases. The government is expected to earn Rs 75 crore through OTS. Under Rule 26 of the Minor Mineral Concession Rules 1966, anyone transporting or quarrying minerals in violation of the rules is liable to pay a penalty.
An owner of any building under construction, regardless of the size, has to produce proof of payment of seigniorage fees for the building stone, rough stone/boulders, metal chips, kerbs and cubes, morrum/ ravel and ordinary sand/sand manufactured from boulders, lime stone slabs, granite slabs that may be lying on the site, even though the construction is being done by a contractor who is not the owner.
From a practical perspective, the building owner will not have any proof of payment of seigniorage fees, which the contractor is expected to pay. A large number of cases were booked in this category.
Mines minister T. Harish Rao held meetings with officials to dispose these cases booked several years ago by collecting fees. “This will reduce harassment by officials, resolve long pending cases and provide relief to house owners who were imposed a penalty for the fault of contractors. Besides the government would realise the revenues under OTS,” said Mr Rao.
Officials have prepared draft guidelines on OTS and submitted to government, which is expected to issue orders soon.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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