Thiruvananthapuram: The usual practice of securing royalty from mining licence holders upfront has led to a situation where excessive extraction is carried out with impunity. Department of Mining and Geology sources said that it was forced to opt for consolidated upfront royalty payment system as it was difficult to monitor and enforce quantity-based payments with the existing manpower. The Director of Mining and Geology grants quarrying lease for a year limiting the quantity to be quarried as per Kerala Minor Minerals Concessoin Rules. Lease holders have the option to pay consolidated royalty based on jaw size or power of crusher installed, irrespective of the quantity quarried.
A random check of nearly 80 lease holders who had opted for consolidated payment of royalty based on Registered Metal Crusher Units (RMCU) conducted by the Mining and Geology Department showed that the quantity extracted was more than the annual permissible limit specified by the Department and the royalty paid with respect to quantity was short by Rs 12.21 crore compared to the consolidated royalty paid as per Schedule I of KMMC Rules. “It was observed that lack of restrictions in extraction of granite building stones resulted in indiscriminate extraction of the resource from lease areas,” a top DMG source said.
For the year 2013-14, for instance, the ‘consolidated royalty’ collected for a quantity of 48 lakh metric tones was Rs 1.96 crore. However, the royalty as per Schedule I of KMMC Act worked out to Rs 7.69 crore at the rate of Rs 16 per MT. For the year 2015-16, the ‘consolidated royalty’ collected for a quantity of 51.6 lakh MT Rs 5.92 crore when the royalty should have been Rs 12.40 crore at the rate of Rs 24 per MT. However, the DMG official said that the implementation of electronic mineral transit pass would give the Department an opportunity to revisit the issue.
