Mining closure has resulted in the revenue targets in the State falling by 15%
The situation is grimmer than Goa Government had perceivedas mining closure has left the State’s revenue collection down by almost 15%.The royalty collection by mines department on iron ore exports has fallen downto Rs. 300.21 crores for the period August-September 2012. Last year theroyalty collected for the same period was Rs. 467.13 crores. The drop, awhopping Rs. 166.92 crores.
“The loss this year on royalty alone will be Rs. 600+crores” confirms Prasanna Acharya, Director, Mines and Geology. Royaltyaccounts for almost three-fourths of what the State collects from Mining andallied sector and stands at approximately Rs. 900 crores per annum. Miningsloss is likely to have a domino effect on State’s revenue collection from theseother sectors too. Mining Department confirms that collections from Transportcess which was Rs. 15.91 crores last year has come to a grinding halt at Rs.10.19 crores. The losses to Goa Government’s revenue collection from othermining related business are still being estimated.
Goa Government’s Finance Department is also seized with thematter as the State Government’s long list of electoral promises especiallythose related to welfare schemes need to be put into place. “Though Sales Taxis our biggest revenue earner, the importance of revenue collection from Miningtoo is significant”, explains Anand Sherkhane, Additional Secretary Finance.Sherkhane a key figure in the past five State Budgets however points out to amore serious issue. “The cost of social impact will be very high in comparisonto the revenue loss as 2.5 lakh people’s lives and livelihoods will beaffected”, stresses Sherkhane. With a plethora of popular Government schemeslike Ladli Laxmi, Griha Aadhar Scheme and now CM’s Rozgar Yojana putting anadditional Rs. 150-200 crore burden per programme the drop in collection is acause of concern.
Mining Industry’s revenue avenues are more than just royaltyand transport cess, barge taxes, taxes from mining trucks etc to add to thelist of revenues. While Barge Taxes to the tune of Rs. 18 crores come in fromthe Barge Owners, a similar amount comes from the Mining Truckers. However,both these industries have reported losses upwards of Rs 50 crores each for thepast month.
Principal Secretary Mines Rajnikant K Verma concurs that thecombined losses because of mining and related business may actually add up to ahuge amount. “The earnings from Mining for the Government are too substantial tobe ignored. What is even more significant is the social cost to the State”,explains Verma.
What is even more heart wrenching for the State is the sightof 49 lakh tonnes of extracted ore lying on the State’s 22 jetties awaitingSupreme Court nod for export. The royalty would have helped close the gap ofdeficit from collection. The collections till date are from the leanpre-monsoon monsoon months. With mining operations shut since the past four anda half months, the losses could rise further.
