Country’s
leading mineral producing state Odisha will start electronic-auction of
minerals from April 2013. The whole process will be managed in collaboration
with Metals and Scrap Trading Company (MSTC) a MiniRatna PSU under the union
mines ministry.
“Three
major minerals produced in the state iron ore, Manganese and Chromite will be sold
through e-auction route from April. With this the whole mineral treading
process will become transparent and at the same time current market rate will
be reflected on the minerals.†said Deepak Mohanty, Director of mines after the
meeting of the five member committee on e-auction headed by Steel and mines
Secretary Rajesh Verma with the representatives of MSTC.
Through
the –auction of minerals the government is planning to control the raising and
transport of minerals in the state and at the same time it’ll make
government’s mineral revenue system
transparent.
“The system will enable us to track transactions
between lessees and buyers. The rates will reflect the actual market prices,â€Â
added Mohanty.
In
order to implement this process the government has constituted a committee
headed by the Director of mines and comprising of senior officials of department
of finance, law and mines.
Domestic sale of iron ore produced in Odisha was
60 million tonnes in 2011-12, while that of chrome ore and manganese ore was
one million tonnes and 50,000 tonnes, respectively.
The Odisha government had decided to start the
e-auction process from August this year however the process got delayed. Now
the panel will meet various stakeholders to decide the modalities of the
auction. After reaching consensus the government would come up with an official
order on this.
On the other hand the mining industry has
expressed its reservations on the issue. “, Since the highest price bid would
get the ore supply, the decision on e-auction will contradict the government’s
earlier commitment to supply raw material to the industries inside the state at
a reasonable price’ said Prabodh Mohanty, spokesperson eastern Zone Mining Association
(EZMA)
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