Government to revise royalty rates on minerals

The government will revise the rates of royalty on minerals following a request by mineral bearing states.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced this while presenting the national budget for fiscal 2014-15.

Mineral-rich states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Goa have been asking for a steep hike in the royalty rates for their minerals.

While the royalty is collected by the states, the Centre has the power to revise them.

The rates of royalty are revised every three years for major minerals excluding coal, lignite and sand. They were last revised in August, 2009.

Based on the recommendations of a study group set up by the UPA government in 2011, the mines ministry had recently floated a draft cabinet note on increasing royalty on minerals like iron ore and bauxite for inter-ministerial discussion.

The finance minister also proposed to hike the export duty on bauxite to 20 percent from 10 percent.