ISLAMABAD: The marble sector on Saturday raised concerns over the massive hike — almost 300 per cent — in mining fees and royalties by the Balochistan government and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

In a notification issued on March 3 by Balochistan’s Mines and Mineral Development Department, the licence fee/renewal fee for minerals has been increased in the range of Rs0.5-2 million from Rs10,000-0.2m. The reconnaissance licence was previously for only Rs20,000 but now the same has been increased to Rs500,000.

The Exploration Licence fee has been increased to Rs1m from Rs0.24m, Mineral Deposit Retention Licence went up from Rs350,000 to Rs1.5m while the Mining Licence fee has also been jacked to Rs3m from Rs0.8m. The government fee for Mining Lease has been set at Rs1m from existing Rs50,000, whereas security deposits for mineral title has also been increased to Rs2m to Rs4m.

The annual rent at government land has been increased from Rs10,000 to Rs 100,000 for different licence holders. Royalties for precious stone, metals and other minerals have also been increased.

Slamming the increase, the industry noted that the unprecedented rise in royalties would increase the cost of doing business and eventually lead to a decline in overall revenue.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries and Production, and the FBR, Sanaullah Khan, the chairman of All Pakistan Marble Mining, Processing Industry and Exporters Association (APMMPIEA) said, “Balochistan needs unskilled and semiskilled jobs to counter the separatist sentiment and mines offer the best job opportunity to the locals.” He highlighted that commercial mining was the largest employment sector in Balochistan.

The provincial government’s notification was formulated without any involvement of stakeholders, he added.

“The recent global recession and other unfavourable economic conditions have suppressed mining activities overall. The increase in fees and levies would lead to temporary closure of many mines,” the APMMPIEA chairman said.

He lamented that relevant department has not made any effort to facilitate mining activities including the import of local manufacturing of machinery, establishing any machinery pools, providing security to the investors and workers development of roads and other infrastructures.

“If this notification is implemented, it will create havoc in the mining sector and suppress commercial activities further,” he warned.

Apart from marble, Balochistan has large number of mines for coal, gypsum, granite, asbestos, antimony, agglomerate, barite, basalt, bentonite, bajri, clay, gabbro stone, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, ordinary stone, sulphur, soap stone, sand, shale and quartz.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020