UDAIPUR | Dec 15, 2016: Owing to its ease and profitability, Andhra Pradesh is likely to adopt the Rajasthan model of royalty collection contract for minerals. A state team of delegates comprising officials from Mines and Geology department and Granite Association from Andhra Pradesh is here on a three-day official visit to study and assess the system adopted by Rajasthan government to determine royalty and excess royalty collection contracts for major and minor minerals.
The team interacted with experts and authorities at the Directorate of Mines and Geology in Udaipur on Wednesday. A power point presentation was facilitated by local officers to appraise the delegates of royalty collection system prevalent in Udaipur.
"In Rajasthan, royalty rates are determined weight based i.e. per tonne, however, in Andhra Pradesh, the criteria for measurement is per cubic foot. There is a much strenuous and cumbersome process which requires long time to measure each block while our system is convenient and profitable in terms of revenue collection," Anil Khamesra, SME (superintendent mining engineer) told TOI.
They (AP) do not follow contract system and the royalty rates too are said to be too high. Rajasthan's model of royalty collection contracts has been rated best in terms of 'ease of doing business' in comparison to systems followed in other states, claimed SME Madhusudan Paliwal. The delegation also took a field visit to the department's excess royalty toll collection point at Titardi to get an understanding of how it works.
Andhra Pradesh is well known for variety of rocks & minerals and called as 'Ratna Garbha', a state endowed with variety of minerals. It is a repository of many minerals and contains varieties of Litho units/Rocks, which contain host of industrial and non-industrial minerals.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)