The Hindu : Business : New mining policy may be tabled in winter session

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Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
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New mining policy may be tabled in winter session

Special Correspondent

‘Concern over dearth of investment’

— Photo: V. V. Krishnan

STEPPING UP INVESTMENT: Union Minister of State for Mines, T. Subbarami Reddy (centre), is being greeted by Assocham President, Venugopal Dhoot, during the inaugural session of a summit on mining in New Delhi on Wednesday. Meena Gupta (right), Secretary, Environment and Forest, looks on.

NEW DELHI: The new mining policy is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the monsoon session after getting a go-ahead from the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Friday this week.

“I hope that the policy [mining] is cleared by the GoM on July 6 and subsequently, it should be tabled in Parliament during the monsoon session,” Minister of State for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy said here on Wednesday.

Mr. Reddy noted that the Centre was concerned over the prevailing dearth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the mining sector, despite the fact that, except in exploration in certain classified minerals, the sector was open to FDI under the automatic route. Yet, till 2004, a mere 14 proposals were cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

With the new mining policy in place, the Government, he said, would be targeting an annual investment worth about $ 2 billion in the metals and mining sector along with the creation of five lakh additional jobs in the next five years.

In this regard, Mr. Reddy expressed concern over the lack of exploration in the country for new mineral resources and asked the domestic mining companies to join hands with foreign counterparts for efficient exploitation of fresh mineral reserves.

“We want to increase metals and mining sector’s contribution to the GDP [gross domestic product] which, at present, stands at just 2.8 per cent, with just five per cent of the country’s mineral wealth being explored. Indian players should collaborate with foreign players to further explore this mineral wealth,” he said.

Following the sharp differences between the steel and the mining industries over the utilisation of iron ore, the Union Cabinet had referred the mining policy to a GoM headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil for its recommendations that would be conducive for the overall growth of both sectors.

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