SME Times News Bureau | 17 Aug, 2018
The draft National Mineral Policy is being given final
touches and the new policy is expected to be announced soon, said Bipul Pathak, Joint Secretary, Ministry
of Mines, on Thursday.
Speaking at the National
Summit on Mineral Exploration and Sustainability, organised by FICCI with the support of the
International Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility
(IICSR), Pathak said the new policy would be industry-friendly and
give a big boost to exploration activities.
In the next three to five years, exploration of minerals
should gather momentum and double every year, he added.
Responding to industry?s concern over the onerous burden of
taxation, Mr. Pathak said the new policy would take cognisance of the
recommendations of the Committee on Royalties and other levies with a view to
putting a liberal structure in place.
He urged the private sector to step up investment in mineral
exploration and assured industry that the government would extend financial and
other support to junior exploration companies developed by the private sector.
Kishore Kumar,
Director (Strategy & Business Development), Vedanta Ltd., explained
the reasons for lack of investment by the private sector.
He called for making exploration blocks sustainable in terms
of offer of larger blocks, mining rights to companies doing reconnaissance
work, making available technology and equipment developed indigenously to
explorers and benchmarking of taxation with international norms.
Tuhin, Mukherjee,
MD, Essel Mining & Industries Ltd. And Chair, FICCI Mining Committee, underlined
the need for developing a sustainability framework right from the planning
stage and called for introspection on the need to open mines wherever minerals
were available.
The need of the hour, he said, was to build sustainability
in prospecting and exploration of minerals, he added.