India’s renowned mining companies and steelmakers shared their insights on country’s taxes over mining at SteelMint’s Event IIPS 2 conducted recently.
As per media reports, government is likely to notify the guidelines for DMF (District Mineral Fund) this week after consultation with the Prime Minister. DMF introduced in MMDR Amendment Act, 2015 states that miners will be required to pay upto 100% of the royalty for existing leases and 30% for new leases on the mineral to support project affected people.
However, sources mentioned that the contribution towards DMF for existing leases is not likely to be 100%, as the objective behind DMF formation is to support people, but at the same time not to overburden the miners.
In a recent event – 2nd Iron Ore & Pellet Summit, conducted by SteelMint, India’s major steel makers and mining companies expressed their views on the impact of the MMDR Act, 2015 on the Indian mining industry. Few of the comments are mentioned below:
“ Government might fix miners’ contribution towards DMF at about 30-40% and in my opinion the funds should not be applicable retrospectively i.e. it would be applicable from the date DMF will be notified and not from Jan’15 onwards”- Abhishek Agrawal, ED, Godawari Power & Ispat.
Rita Singh, CMD, Mesco Steel cited, “Looking at the current scenario where prices have slashed and have hit lowest levels, contribution of 100% royalty towards DMF might overburden the miners. Thus, Government might lower the DMF contribution.”
“In our country mining cost is already quite high. In comparison to other countries, taxes charged on mining are already quite high in India, thus government might review them, taking the mining cost into consideration”, Manish Kharbanda, ED Mines, JSPL.
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