The Cong govt was the biggest illegal miner
The contours of the Supreme Court death warrant on Goa’s mining, will emerge as each line of the judgement comes into play, ranging from the cap in mining, the distribution of resources earned through e auctioning, the one kilometre buffer zone around eco sensitive zones and the actual loss of all leases.
But around it will emerge a massive question. Who should be accountable for illegal mining? While it is most comfortable to brand all mining players as a bunch of illegal businessmen making ill gotten gains through mining, this popular view cannot pass unless it is given the dipstick treatment in a larger cesspool with more questions asked.
The illegality of operating under deemed renewals carried on from November 20, 2007 till now or till the time the state government banned mining in September 2012, with the acceptance of the state government and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) which maintained the Environment Clearances till its minister Jayanthi Natarajan announced the suspension of all in Oct 2012 a month after the Goa CM suspended all mining operations.
Mining companies were working in an environment created by the government which took years to renew leases and then allowed them to function under deemed renewals. At the same time the state accepted royalties from mining exports and the central government the taxes from mining in its kitty. But there’s more. No one speaks of non tax revenue which boomed during the mining boom, contributed by the earning of 1.3 lakh mining families and the sale of oil and diesel.
In hard money terms it is a staggering 17,000 crores that was generated annually, of which only 3000 crores (Profit after tax) was netted by the mining companies. Here’s how. The money generated by over 1.3 lakh mining families directly and indirectly through their incomes and their spends through a back of the envelope calculation is close to Rs 6000 crores. The state central taxes and royalty amounted to about Rs 6500 crores, the profit after tax of mining players was about Rs 3000 crores and last but as important, the sale of diesel and oil linked to the mining business was Rs 1500 crores. This adds up to Rs 17,000 crores. If mining since November 2007, has been declared illegal, then the money sought to be accounted for should be the entire 17000 crores annually multiplied by seven years, and not just the Rs 3000 crores multiplied by seven years, earned annually by mining companies.
These are massive sums, but the more we dwell on the Supreme Court judgment, the absolute and massive surrender of mechanisms and the surrender to adhocism and crony capitalism needs to be accounted for through the severest of punishments. And the Digambar Kamat-led Congress government which allowed leases to function through deemed renewals has to pay a price for this now criminal action. He was as naked in the bath house as other culprits of illegal mining as defined by the Supreme Court.
While his Director Mines and other mining officials have been arrested, the Supreme Court order is the biggest ground for the arrest and punishment of the then Chief Minister, as Goa hopes to traverse the path of controlled and manageable mining.
At the same time, we must be careful. This decision should not be a ground for foreign or out of state players to take over mining completely because there is a very high possibility of big industrial giants entering Goa to take over the ground vacated by present mining majors. In every sense of the word mining will be up for grabs when fresh leases have to be acquired. This will change the fundamental nature of mining in Goa done on leases given by the Portuguese to local players, who have for years ploughed back and contributed to Goas economy and being local had social responsibilities. Imagine a Adani (Narendra Modi’s pet industrialist) or Reliance entering Goa’s mining. Goa will then see how business is solely and only for profit of the businessman.
