The report is intended to ascertain the actual loss caused to the State exchequer by each mining company due to illegal mining in Goa and initiate recovery proceedings as recommended by the Shah Commission.
A senior official said that mining companies, which were not cooperating with the panel of chartered accountants, were issued a final warning last month and accordingly they have complied by sending in information.
“We have now directed the CAs to submit the maximum number of reports by March 31,” the official disclosed.
Principal Secretary Mines Pawan Kumar Sain had held a special review meeting in February last week and had pulled-up the mines department over slow progress of the audit. Sain had asked the department to disallow operation of leases of those mining firms which do not cooperate with the CAs.
In a bid to assess the exact loss to the State due to illegal mining and recover the same, the Government had last year appointed a panel of 17 CAs, who are examining detailed transactions of iron ore extraction and exports between 2005 and 2012.
Details such as production, export, purchase of ore, domestic sale, iron ore storage outside mining lease sites, opening and closing stocks, etc, are being examined by the panel of CAs.
The need to conduct the exercise became imminent after iron ore exports touched 54 million metric tonnes in the financial year 2011-12, while the royalty was paid only for 47 MMT. The Supreme Court appointed Shah Commission pegged the
mining revenue loss to the State at Rs 35,000 crore.
