Revenue Receipt |
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Directorate General of Mines & Minerals is responsible for grant of mining concessions and minerals titles for minerals or group of minerals under the Punjab Mining Concession Rules 2002. It is also responsible for collection of rents, royalty and fee from the mining concessionaires and mineral title holders. For fiscal year 2022-23, department has collected Rs. 14.17 billion as non-tax revenue.
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Policy Interventions: |
From July 2020 till date, 56 exploration licenses (32 allotted & 24 at offer stage) were awarded for three years over an area of approximately 100,000 acres under Large Scale Mining, on applications under rule 24 of the rules ibid, with the objective of installation of Salt Based Industrial Units. Later on, “Rock Salt Policy” & "Amended Rock Salt Policy" were approved by the then Cabinet and notified on 18.08.2022 & 06.01.2023 respectively. Through these twin policies, the mandatory condition of installation of the Industrial units was waived off and past licensees / lessees were allowed to produce and sell Rock Salt of any quality or quantity in the domestic or international markets as it pleases them. Basically through these policies, the terms & Conditions of 56 exploration licenses were changed retrospectively, giving illegal and undue favor to them To save the public exchequer from massive loss, a summary for CM Punjab was initiated by the Administrative Department for placing the matter before Cabinet for revocation of above discussed Rock Salt Policies. As per approval of CM Punjab, the matter was considered and approved in 9th Cabinet Meeting held on 11.03.2022. After receipt of minutes of meeting of Cabinet, the subject skewed Rock Salt Policies have been withdrawn / De-notified vide notification dated 24.03.2023.
Some minerals were being granted through applications instead of open auction. Applications for grant of prospecting licenses were pending since the year 2001. Grant of some minerals through application involved discretion & malpractices. Issued Order and stopped all awards of contracts through applications and, instead, started awarding contracts through Open Competitions to the highest bidder only. By this action, hundreds of zones which were lying idle for decades are being put into open auctions, injecting billions of rupees, depending upon the bids received, into state exchequer. |
IT Initiatives |
Functionalized the first version of online Mineral Cadaster System. Database for areas granted & vacant for exploration or mining on GIS. Type of license granted, start and end dates of contracts etc. Mineral wise concession, district/ division wise data. Working on online submission of applications and fees etc. Working on e-auction module to curb cartelization and pooling. Registration and geo tagging of Leases / Mines. Mines Inspection Module. Application for Field Officers to digitize the inspection Regime. Digitization of Payments related to Challan. Accident and Incident Report Submission Process. Overall Inspectors Grading Module and Tour Roaster Module. Enforcement of Terms & Conditions and safety measures |
