“Based on the Supreme Court directive we have fixed September 14 as the date to begin the auction. It will continue for a year,” Additional Director of Mines and Geology Veeranna told Deccan Herald.
As the moratorium on mining iron ore is in place, Karnataka which has stocked up 25 million metric tonne of iron ore in Bellary (14 million MT), Chitradurga (around seven million MT) and Tumkur (around four million MT), is expected to e-auction the ore in a year.
CEC recommendation
The Supreme Court, based on the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) recommendations, has constituted a Monitoring Committee and directed it to sell at least 1.5 million MT a month.
The Committee comprises APCCF Deepak Sharma, CCF U V Singh, and Director of Mines and Geology Department H R Srinivasa.
According to sources, the committee has decided to e-auction around 40,000 MT of ore a day in the first month and eventually aim to meet the target of selling 1.5 million MT a month, as irected by the Supreme Court.
MSTC Ltd, which comes under the Ministry of Steel has been engaged for conducting the e-auctioning, while the committee will deal with the sale and transportation of the existing stock of iron ore and maintain account of the sales proceeds.
The Committee is yet to finalise the rates at which the ore will be e-auctioned. The Committee held a meeting with the mine owners of Bellary on Tuesday and arrived at an agreement to fix the China/Japan rates, minus the export duty and the transportation costs to the ports. The domestic taxes will, however, be in place.
The Department of Mines and Geology has begun to issue notification for interested buyers (steel industries, sponge iron plants, pig iron plants, pelletisation and beneficiation plants) to register themselves with MSTC Ltd.
The process
* 1.5 million MT of iron ore to be sold per month through e-auction portal www.mstcecommerce.com
* Price of ore will be fixed by NMDC
* Only associated industries that have traded with Karnataka eligible to participate in the e-auction
* Pelletisation and beneficiation plants may participate provided the ore purchased and processed is made available to steel and associate industries
* Export of ores will not be permissible
* Physical verification of iron ore will be carried out before e-auction
* e-permit system for issue of transit passes (mineral dispatch permits/trip sheets) will be followed
* Weigh bridges will be linked with on-line e-permit system
* In the event of violation of the terms and conditions pertaining to loading, lifting, and transportation, the purchaser will be liable for penalty, or he can be debarred
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