Panaji | Oct 26, 2015: In a step towards recovering the money lost through illegal mining, the State government has constituted a six-member expert committee to study the audit report of mining lease holders and traders and to recommend action.

The audit reports of 103 mining leases out of 118, have been submitted to the government by a panel of chartered accountants who studied the accounts of the mining leases.

The committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Mines) has to study the reports on the comprehensive audit carried out by the chartered accountants on the mining leases and traders for the period from 2007-08 to 2011-2012 and recommend action to be taken thereon.

The other members of the committee are the Additional Secretary (Finance), the Director of Mines and Geology and three chartered accountants. The term of the committee is one year.

In 2014 the State had appointed a panel of 17 CAs, to probe the financial transactions of mining firms, to estimate the loss to the State exchequer due to illegal mining.

Details like production, export, purchase of ore, domestic sale, iron ore storage outside mining site, opening and closing stock, etc have been studied by the CAs. The panel was formed after the Justice M B Shah Commission in its report exposed a scam running into Rs 35,000 crore in Goa through illegal mining. Of the 460 traders operating in the State over the years, Mines department failed to nab around 300 errant traders. In 2012 it suspended the licences of all 460 traders.

The issue of illegal traders came to light after it was observed that 63 traders were involved in export of 7 MMT of illegal ore in the financial year 2011-12.

(Source: http://www.goacom.com/)