MMDR Amendment Bill

MMDR Amendment Bill

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II -Policies and interventions 

In news

• The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2021 was passed in Lok Sabha to streamline the renewal of the auction process for minerals and coal mining rights.

Key takeaways 

• The amendment proposes to allow captive miners of both coal and other minerals to sell up to 50% of their production after meeting the requirements of the end-use plant and on paying additional royalty to the state government.
• Operators are currently only allowed to use coal and minerals extracted from captive mines for their own industrial use. 
• This increased flexibility would allow miners to maximise output from captive mines as they would be able to sell output in excess of their own requirements.
• It proposes to fix additional royalty payments to states for the extension of mining leases for central public sector enterprises.
• It proposes to empower the central government to conduct auctions or re-auction processes for the grant of a mining lease if a state government fails to complete the auction process in a specified period.