By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 17: The state Cabinet has decided to raise stamp duty for the mining lease holders from 50% to 100%.
After a meeting of the Cabinet, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the decision was made following a court order which required mining lease holders to pay 100% stamp duty.
According to him, this was done due to a wrong interpretation of the rule by the miners that the mining lease falls under the instrument of conveyance and since they belonged to the Scheduled Tribe category, they are required to pay only 50% stamp duty.
“The court has issued an order that mining lease stamp duty is not under instruments of conveyance and hence, the mining lease holders will have to pay 100% stamp duty,” the CM said.
He said he did not have details on how many people obtained the mining lease. He said the government would generate additional revenue of around Rs 27 crore from the raise in stamp duty.
The government has asked the mining lease holders to pay the remaining 50% stamp duty within March 31.
The Cabinet regularised the reduction of taxes for petrol and diesel and approved new tax rates.
The government has slashed petrol and diesel prices by around Rs 7, ostensibly bowing to pressure from various quarters.
On Wednesday, petrol was sold at Rs 86.05 and diesel at Rs 79.35 a litre in Shillong. The price of extra premium petrol was Rs 88.95 a litre.
The Cabinet passed an ordinance, approving amendment to the Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (MFRBM) Act, 2006 to allow the government borrow 5% of overall state GDP as debt as against 3% earlier.
The chief minister said the MFRBM Act was amended as the Central government allowed the states to borrow an additional 2% in view of the COVID-induced difficulties in the financial situation.
Further, the Cabinet approved the appointment of 45 junior engineers under the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department bypassing the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) under Regulation 3 (f).
Sangma said the PHE department had conducted interviews on an urgent basis due to shortage of manpower for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.
He argued that if the recruitment drive were undertaken through the MPSC, it could have taken more than a year.