Mining loot continues unabated in the State despite so much of hullaballoo over the matter in past.
latest in this line is the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) Report for 2015 which has nailed the Mines and Geology Department and its officials at district level for siphoning off Rs 338.59 crore by under-calculating the levy that the ‘black diamond’ attracts.
In its report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, the CAG blamed the department for violating provisions of the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, the Mineral Concession Rules and other notifications issued in this regard by the Ministry of Coal.
“The Mines and Geology Department did not observe the provisions of the Act/Rules with regard to application of correct rate of royalty, scrutiny and verification of monthly returns etc. Non-observance of the provisions of the Act/Rules and notifications issued by the Ministry of Coal with regard to application of correct rate of royalty resulted in short levy of royalty of Rs 338.59 crore,” reads the revealing report.
When contacted, Mines Director SK Negi admitted having information about the matter. “The issue had come to our knowledge about a month ago and has been discussed at the Department level as well. I am all for improvement and file in this regard is moving in that direction,” he told The Pioneer. “Moreover, it is the Public Accounts Committee of the Assembly that will examine the findings of the CAG,” he added.
Between October 2014 and January 2015, the auditors checked the monthly returns of 139 leases of coal in four mining offices of premier coal bearing districts-Bokaro, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh and Ramgarh in the State. It was noticed that 23 lessees had dispatched 136.66 lakh MT of coal during 2009-10 and 2013-14.
“On these dispatches royalty of Rs 308.79 crore was levied instead of Rs 644.94 crore that was to be levied on the basis of basic pit head price of Run of Mines (ROM) coal notified by the Coal India limited as required under the notification issued by the Ministry of Coal and on the basis of sale price of tailing coal. The respective DMOs/AMOs failed to compute royalty on the basis of above provisions. This resulted in short levy of royalty amounting to Rs 336.15 crore due of application of incorrect rate,” says the CAG report.
Quantity of coal dispatched in 2013-14 from Bokaro was 2.04 lakh MT that attracted royalty of Rs 5.16 crore. However, just Rs 3.84 crore was levied incurring loss of Rs 1.32 crore. Similarly, the under reporting was of Rs 7.67 crore in Dhanbad, Rs 1.91 crore in Hazaribagh and whopping Rs 325.23 crore (2009-10 to 2013-14) in Ramgarh. This apart, loss of another Rs 27.60 crore took place due to downgrading of coal by collieries located in Dhanbad, Pakur, Ramgarh and Ranchi districts.
“In 2013-14 four collieries (Bhowra (S) 3PIT OCP, Panem Coal Mines, Sirka and Churi) had downgraded the coal of 50.55 lakh MT in their monthly returns as declared under the provisions of Rule 4(2) of the Colliery Control Rules, 2004. The DMOs were negligent not to verify on the grades shown in monthly returns. This resulted in short levy of royalty of Rs 27.60 crore,” reads the report.