SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who is also in charge of Mining and Geology, introduced the Meghalaya Minerals Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2020 during the Autumn Session that started on Thursday.
The Bill seeks to amend the Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988 which includes the amendment of Section 3. In the Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988 in Section 3, after the word, “limestone”, the words “iron ore, building stone, boulder, gravel, ordinary sand, ordinary clay, ordinary earth, brick earth, slate, shale, granite, quartz, quartzite, sandstone” shall be inserted. Again, after the word, “quarry”, the words “or any land” shall be inserted.
Again, in the Act of 1988 in sub-section (1) of Section 4, after clause (d), the clauses that shall be inserted are “(e) iron ore, rupees one hundred and ten per tonne; (f) building stone and boulder, rupees twenty five per cubic meter; (g) gravel and ordinary sand, rupees thirty per cubic meter; (h) ordinary clay, ordinary earth and brick earth, rupees twenty-five per cubic meter; (i) quartz, slate and shale, rupees twenty-five per tonne (j) quartzite and sandstone, rupees sixty per cubic meter; (k) granite, rupees two hundred and fifty per cubic meter.”
There is also an amendment in Section 5 of the Act of 1988 such as in the clause (a), the word “and” shall be deleted; and after clause (b), the clauses namely (c) improvement of public health (d) drinking water supply; and (e) physical infrastructure development,” shall be added.
The existing proviso after clause (b) shall be replaced with the proviso, namely – “provided that not less than twenty-five per cent of the proceeds so collected shall at any time be utilised for the purpose referred to in clause (a)”.
The Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988 was enacted to provide for levy and collection of cess on some minerals for development of primary education and development and improvement of mining areas.
In order to augment revenue resources of the state, it is decided to amend Section 3 of Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988 to levy Cess on 14 (fourteen) new minerals viz. iron ore, building stone, granite, boulder, ordinary sand, ordinary clay, ordinary earth, gravel, slate, shale, brick earth, quartz, quartzite and sandstone and also fix the rate of cess for each mineral.
Again, to augment revenue resources of the state, it is decided to amend Section 3 of Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988 to levy cess on minerals extracted or removed from ‘any land’ in addition to mines or quarry.
To expand the activities for which cess amount can be utilised, it is decided to amend Section 5 of the Act to include improvement of public health, drinking water supply and physical infrastructure development in addition to purposes mentioned under clause (a) and clause (b) of Section 5 of the aforesaid Act.
To achieve the primary objectives of the Meghalaya Minerals Cess Act, 1988, it is proposed to utilise not less than 25 per cent of the amount collected for the purpose of development of primary education.